Forever and Always
by SunRae5
Summary: Ichigo has not seen anyone from the soul society for over two years. When a disaster occurs in the soul society, part of the Gotei 13 is sent over to the world of the living. A chain reaction occurs. Slow Ichiruki and various other pairings. ON HIATUS
1. Lost in Thought

_Forever and Always_

_Chapter 1 - Lost in thought_

As Ichigo gazed out across the moonlit sky, he couldn't help but remember a similar day, three years back. It was the night he had seen his very first hollow, the night he'd met Rukia. He sighed heavily and turned back towards his room. Who would have thought that within three years so much could change? But no matter what anyone else might think, the past two had definitely been the most painful.

Two whole years without his powers, two whole years in which he'd witnessed his friends do the job he had done, his sisters grow in terms of spiritual pressure and the world just passing him by. Annoyingly, the one thing which had stayed the same was the idiot whom he had to call his father. The one thing which he might not have minded changing had stayed the same throughout all these years.

He sighed again. He's started university a couple of weeks ago and at the moment his room mate, Arashi, was out partying again. Arashi stayed true to his name and was a constant storm. A storm which left a tonne of chaos in his wake as could be seen by the mess he'd left behind. Great, now he'd have to clean up everything because otherwise he'd have to listen non-stop to the various wise cracks Arashi would give about how work had to be shared when you have a room mate. Ichigo snorted. Yeah right, more like leaving all the work to your room mate in Arashi's case.

As he got back to work he wondered what Rukia would be doing right now.

At that very moment, Rukia had little time to actually be thinking about much. As she dodged another wave of Senbonsakura's blades she felt the sweat dripping down her back. When Byakuya had finally agreed to help her train her combat skills, she had been as surprised as she had been happy. Since the winter war three years back, not much had occured in the soul society that had required anybody's combat skills. To be honest, most of the soul reapers missed the time leading up to the winter war since it had actually given them something to do. Now it was just back to good old patrol work as well as the usual paper work.

Surprisingly a lot more people missed the people from the world of the living than she had initially thought. Ichigo, Orihime, Chad, Uryu and all the others from Karakura were sorely missed by those who knew them. But all of them were forbidden to go back to the world of the living unless the need should arise to do so. And until now, that need had not arisen.

"Rukia, I believe it would be in our best interests if we stopped for today. You seem very distracted today."

A slight blush crept up her features as she noticed that she had been lost in thought again. Turning quickly to her brother she though she could see a slightly amused look in his eyes before blinking and it being gone.

"Thank you for your kind patience with me brother. I am truly sorry that I am so unfocused today." Rukia responded quietly, bowing her head slightly in respect for her brother, and most probably in shame too for being caught daydreaming again.

"I will see you again later then." And with that her brother took off across the grounds in flash step.

Sighing, Rukia put away Sode no Shirayuki, her thoughts once again wandering to the inhabitants of Karakura. In her present state of mind she even missed Kon, that perverted lion. At that thought she chuckled but quickly caught herself again, making sure that no one else was around. She had been working incredibly hard at keeping her longing to go back to Karakura hidden but around this time of the year she couldn't help herself, it was too close to the time when she'd met Ichigo for the first time. As she looked at the setting sun she sneezed. Hm, maybe he hadn't forgotten them and was thinking about her.

* * *

><p><em>AN: This is the first time that I've attempted this sort of thing. I hope that it went well. =)_

__ I also want to mention that any romance between two characters normally takes quite a while to develop so don't expect anything too fast between any two people to happen since I like to take my time with the development of the relationships between the various characters. Just sayin' ;)  
><em>_


	2. Emergency in the Seretei

_Forever and Always_

_Chapter 2 - Emergency in the Seretei_

As Rukia was walking back towards the barracks of Squad 13 she suddenly noticed the hell butterfly that was flying towards her. She stopped and waited for it to reach her before holding out her hand for it to land on.

"Notice to all captains and lieutenants of the 13 court guard squads, this is an emergency of level one, we repeat this is an emergency of level one, please go to the designated area and meet there with the other squad captains and lieutenants immediately."

Rukia started, what could have caused such an emergency at a time like this? As far as she knew, all was calm and peaceful. But now that she thought about it, it was too calm and peaceful. Something should have been happening but since Aizen's capture nothing had. Absolutely nothing. That should have been worrying in itself but instead all that they had thought about was that it was thankfully peaceful at last. She cursed herself quietly. She should have known better than to trust the superficial calm. Now they would have another problem of their hands if it was really a level one emergency.

As she reached the Squad 1 barracks she met up with Renji, who was currently the lieutenant of Squad 6.

"So, what do you think it is?" Renji asked her.

"Well how should I know, I'm not the one who called in a level one emergency am I?" she snapped back at him.

"Sheesh, calm down Rukia, I was only asking." Renji sighed in relief as she appeared to drop it. "But seriously, what do you think it is? What could have cause them to call out a level one emergency?" Renji was leaving out the obvious question which had been plaquing her since she had recieved the message from the hell butterfly. It couldn't be Aizen. It just couldn't. They had locked him away in the darkest cell on the 8th floor of the prison. The deepest one there was.

"I sure don't hope it's what I think it is." She muttered under her breath.

"Yeah." He said quietly, the topic robbing both of them of any words.

Silently they reached the designated area within the Squad 1 barracks greeting Yachiru Kusajichi, Squad 11 lieutenant and Rangiku Matsumoto, Squad 10 lieutenant after arriving. Right after them was Izuru Kira, Squad 3 lieutenant and Momo Hinamori, Squad 5 lieutenant. Twenty minutes later all the lieutenants had arrived and when after an hour no news had reached them yet from the captains meeting, they started to get uneasy and restless.

The door was suddenly flung open as Hanataro, 7th seat of squad 4 burst in confirming all of their worst fears.

"Aizen has escaped!"

* * *

><p>Ichigo plonked himself down next to Uryu as the lecture began in front of him. He could feel Uryu's irritation at him sitting there for some strange reason but it didn't bother him much. Uryu was usually annoyed at him, especially at this time in the morning.<p>

"And what do you think you're doing there Ichigo?" Uryu turned to him, his annoyance clear on his face.

"Well I strongly suspect that I'm sitting at the moment waiting for the lecture to begin." Ichigo replied sarcastically, not even bothering to hide it. Arashi had brought home Hiroto yesterday, and after having to deal with two complete nut jobs instead of just one, Ichigo was by no means in the mood to put up with Uryu's smart remarks.

Thankfully before Uryu could find an answering comment, the professor walked in and the lecture started so both of them concentrated on what was happening in front of them. Lecture hall number five in Karakura Hideyuki University was the most open and spacious one and since the lecture had started at 8:30 in the morning, about half of the students who should have been there were missing. Both Uryu and Ichigo sat rather far to the left side near the front so they had an excellent view of the board, but probably more importantly an excellent view of outside.

Professor Yang was known to be one of the most boring lecturers in the entire university, so their current position brought them many advantages. And although the lectures on the anatomy of the human body normally interested both of them, both may have been physically present in the hall but mentally they were far away.

Ichigo was still thinking about the strange dream of Rukia he'd had last night. He could have sworn he'd seen her attend an emergency meeting where they had told them that Aizen had escaped. But that was absurd. Aizen had been locked away on the eigth floor of the prison, the worst and most sever of them all. And he had been sentenced to stay there for 20,000 years. So there should be no chance of him getting out. Especially considering all the guards that had been posted there to make sure he wouldn't escape.

But while Ichigo was trying to figure out how one could break out of a prison, Uryu was considering something completely different. But it wouldn't even be over his own dead that he would admit to what he was thinking about to anyone, especially Ichigo. Uryu was thinking about Orihime and the strange behaviour she'd been exhibiting towards him lately. No, not just him but their entire group. He could swear that he had seen her with some strange man outside a café only a couple of days back. And she kept avoiding their questions as to where she had been. The mere thought of her being with some other man made his blood boil. It was only with great difficulty that he was able to pull his attention back to the lecture at hand and how the left ventricle of the heart worked.

"Psst. Uryu." Uryu turned to Ichigo, slightly annoyed at him for interrupting his train of thought and concentration, although he was probably more annoyed at himself for being thankful that Ichigo had interrupted that last train of thought.

"What's the matter now?" His voice was layered thick with irritation again.

"Could someone break out of a prison in the soul society?"

Uryu started. "What?" He asked a little more loudly than intended. Thankfully no one else noticed.

"I mean, technically, someone shouldn't be able to break out of the prison there, not with all the guards..." Ichigo sounded surprisingly unsure about that last statement of his.

"If you are referring to Aizen, as I can only assume you are then you need not worry. If something happened then they would have contacted us by now." Uryu murmed the last part more quietly since the professor had taken a short break to breathe and look around the hall.

Ichigo grumbled to himself. "I know I know. I was just asking."

But before Uryu could inquire as to why he was even asking in the first place the professor chose him to be the one to answer his next question. 'Great, now the universe absolutely hates me' he thought, unaware that Ichigo was thinking something along those lines since he'd just seen the amount of homework they'd been given to do.

* * *

><p><em>AN: Hopefully I spelled all the Japanese names right. Hideyuki means excellent happiness, Arashi means storm and Hiroto means big flight. The meanings of those names will hopefully become clearer in later chapters._


	3. Back to the World of the Living

_Forever and Always_

_Chapter 3 - Back to the World of the Living_

As Ichigo and Uryu moved across the campus to the cafeteria situated to the far west they noticed the gathering storm clouds. The thought of having to walk home in the rain made both of them frown, they lived in the same building a short walk away, but that short walk was still a twenty minute short walk. Again Ichigo wondered why he hadn't bothered to save up for a car.

Across the field they could see Chad, Keigo and Mizuiro coming towards them. Mizuiro was texting as usual while Keigo was trying to get more than two or three word answers from Chad. While Ichigo and Uryu had decided to study medicine, Chad was studying music, Keigo politics and Mizuiro psychology. Ichigo and Uryu had both made their decisions seperately that they had wanted to study medicine yet when they had found out that the other was taking it they had accused each other of copying.

That Chad had taken music was really no surprise to anyone in the group. While most people might think that Chad's big build made him someone to do with sport, his friends knew differently. Chad was incredibly gentle and music had been a logical decision as well as one that he knew he would enjoy. Even in high school he had played with a band. The surprise had come with Keigo qualifying well enough to study politics, though to be honest, a job where couldn't talk excessively would have been torture to him as well as the ones around him. As for Mizuiro studying psychology, that might have been the biggest surprise of them all. Mizuiro had never said much about what he wanted to do later on in life and his playboy attitude sure had made them all think that he wouldn't go into the academic kind of stuff.

About halfway to the cafeteria the two groups joined up and immediately the bickering between Uryu and Keigo started. Keigo because he thought Uryu was a boring academic as well as a smart ass, and sadly Ichigo couldn't disagree, and Uryu because he found Keigo as well as his loud and boisterous attitude to be extremely annoying. The others simply ignored the tirade between them, all lost in thought, either due to the lectures or lessons they had just had or because of other reasons.

After sitting down in the cafeteria to eat their lunch, they were joined by Tatsuki and Orihime. Orihime was taking courses in cookery, since she wanted to be a chef later on in life. Nobody had yet had the courage to tell her that her cooking was pretty different to what most people percieved as tasty, the celery and beet root sandwich she was eating right now being the perfect example. Tatsuki had decided to study civil defense and martial arts, a combination which hadn't been a surprise but which made most boys wooing Orihime think twice about what they did.

Both girls sat down at the table and they immediately started to talk to each other in some sort of organised chaos. Ichigo sat back and watched the scene. He had a bad feeling that this peace that they'd had for the past two years wouldn't last. Even worse, the feeling that that dream of his had been real made him really worried. He just couldn't shake it off.

~.~.~.~.~

Rukia stared at the group of people standing in front of her, wandering how much longer it could possibly take for them all to be ready. Captain Zaraki and Yachiru were arguing about whether or not she should take her scooter with her. Ikkaku was making a loud ruckus as usual about fighting a lot of enemies, Yumichika was looking at his reflection in a window nearby while simultaneously arguing with Rangiku and Captain Hitsugaya looked like he was about to erupt, just like a volcano would. Renji and her brother were simply standing there not talking. So basically their usual rota. Her own captain, Captain Ukitake was standing slightly to the side while talking to Captain Kyoraku and Nanao and not far off either was Captain Soi Fon giving her lieutenant a long list of things to do while she was gone as well the usual lecture she gave him about his incompetence. Izuru wasn't standing far away either, he was saying good-bye to Momo Hinamori while Shuhei was looking through his luggage, presumably having forgotten something. Hanataro was standing near Captain Unohana and was organising the final medicines into a bag while Nemu was watching the whole proceedings, apparently uninterested.

All these people had been chosen by Head Captain Yamamoto as part of an elite squad which was to be dispatched to the world of the living. All of them were lieutenants or captains, Hanataro, Yumichika and Ikkaku being the only ones not so. Rukia sighed softly and tried to keep her excitement from bubbling up to the surface and showing itself. She wanted no one to know just how happy she was about going back to the world of the living.

Finally, after what felt like an eternity, they were all ready to go.

"I presume that you all know what you were chosen for." Head Captain Yamamoto began. "Sosuke Aizen has escaped and we can presume that he will try to exact revenge on Ichigo Kurosaki and Kisuke Urahara for what they did to him in the winter war, two years ago."

All of them nodded, no one would ever be able to forget the winter war and the consequences it had brought. One of the most notable being Ichigo Kurosaki's loss of powers.

"When you go to the World of the Living you are to incorporate yourselves into the everyday lives of the humans, but please remember to stay on a constant guard. You will have no power restrictions and will be free to use all of your powers as you wish." Again, all of them nodded. "Now, all I have to say is good luck and may you find and capture Aizen before he is able to access his powers again."

They all raised their hands in farewell before walking through the senkaimon.

~.~.~.~.~

Nel looked up in surprise. She was feeling all weird and tingly. Like the time before she'd met Ichigo. Like the time before Aizen had come to Hueco Mundo. Something beig was about to happen. She could feel it in the air.

She looked over to Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, the sixth Espada whom she had healed after finding him nearly dead on the battlefield.

"You feel it too, don't you?" She asked him.

He nodded softly. "Something's going to happen. We have to get to the World of the Living before it's too late."

"What about Ulquiorra?" She looked him in the eyes.

"I'm sure he's already there. Otherwise we would have found him by now." Grimmjow retorted, trying not to think too hard about the fourth Espada.

"Do you think Aizen will come back here?" Nel started to open a gargenta.

"I'm sure of it." He said as they stepped through it into the World of the Living.

* * *

><p><em>AN: So now all of them are starting to go to the World of the Living. Nobody really knows what happened to Grimmjow, most assume that he simply died. I decided however to keep him alive, he's going to play quite an important part later on in the story along with Nel and Ulquiorra._


	4. Just another day

_Forever and Always_

_Chapter 4 - Just another day_

As the company from the soul society entered the senkaimon they immediately noticed two things, one, the passage way to the World of the Living was suddenly bright red instead of the usual blackish-purple colour it was and the second thing was that they were being chased by a monster about fifteen feet tall, something that you normally wouldn't expect in the senkaimon.

The thing was absolutely huge. It was a deep dark black, standing out against the bright red colour the corridor had taken on. It basically looked like a huge demon, a creature out of your worst nightmares. And for a thing as huge as it was, it could move surprisingly fast. Not to mention those beautiful claws and fangs that it was exhibiting. Izuru felt his stomach turn slightly when he thought he saw a red liquid dripping off of the fangs. And he was pretty sure that the red liquid wasn't for decoration.

That's when they noticed the third thing. The restrictive currents, which were supposed to have been turned off weren't actually off. They were on. And it looked like today was cleaning day.

"How. do. we. always. manage. to. have. the. worst. luck!" Renji shouted in exasperation. Rukia couldn't believe it herself. Whatever that huge thing in front of her was, she was pretty sure she'd never seen anything like it before.

"Hey, Lieutenant Kurotsuchi, do you have any idea of what that thing behind us may be?" Shunsui called over to Nemu.

"I have never seen anything like it before Captain Kyoraku." She called back. "And as far as I know, no information about such a creature exists on the databanks of my father."

"Great, then we're going to have to explain to that old grouch what that huge monster was." He muttered under his breath.

"Captain!" Nanao exclaimed indignantly.

"Don't worry sweet Nanao, I would never call the esteemed Captain Kurotsuchi that to his face."

Jushiro and Nanao looked over to him, doubt written clearly across their faces.

"We should just kill it, then we don't have to worry about it anymore. It it might be fun to do so." Kenpachi stared back at the monster, bloodlust rising into his eyes.

"And be killed by the restrictive currents right behind it? No thank you!" Rangiku called out indignantly.

But before either Yumichika or Ikkaku could throw back a smart comment at her, Rukia noticed the change in speed. It was getting faster.

"It's increased its speed!" She called out, desperate to be heard over the noise the current was making.

"We're nearly there. Not much longer now." Toushiro nodded towards light that was starting to get larger and brighter, right in front of them.

"Just keep moving!" Soi Fon called out.

And suddenly they broke through the other end of the senkaimon, landing atop one another, just glad to be out of the corridor. The arm of the monster reached out behind them and the senkaimon closed not too late, hacking off the arm that was sticking out. They just about managed to hear a scream of pain from the other side before the remnants of the senkaimon vanished, taking the agonised sound with it. They stared in shock as the bleeding arm exploded with a bang, covering them all in ash and dirt.

"Ugh, this is sooo disgusting." Yumichika stared at himself, disgust clearly written across his face.

"Rukia immediately picked up her soul pager. "We have to inform the soul society of this, I can't believe that a monster like that exists in there without anyone knowing about it."

"And neither can I believe that someone forgot to turn off the restrictive currents." Jushiro muttered to himself.

"I turned the currents off myself." Nemu said quietly.

"Don't worry Lieutenant Kurotsuchi, it wasn't your fault." Hanataro said softly, trying to comfort her.

"They were obviously off when we entered the passage." Byakuya said, his stone face not revealing the anger and anxiety going on inside of him.

"Yeah, me and Kenny-chan also noticed that." Yachiru smiled as she said that, sounding really proud of herself.

"I can't reach the soul society!" Rukia exclaimed, a frantic look entering her eyes.

"Me neither!" Renji exclaimed, starting to get worried.

"Just a question, but where the hell are we?" Soi Fon asked, causing everyone to turn around and stare in horror at their previously unnoticed surroundings.

~.~.~.~.~

Ichigo groaned as he got up and out of bed. Kon's snoring had woken him as usual. It would be an official world wonder if Kon's snoring didn't wake someone up. Ichigo swore that it could wake the dead.

As he made his way towards the kitchen he noticed that Arashi's door was locked. Great. Just great. That would mean that Arashi had a girl over and that in turn would mean that he had to get out of the house before Arashi and the girl got out. Otherwise the introductions would have to take place and then the small talk and then the breakfast and then this and that and so on and so forth.

"Pfft. Why can't he just not bring a girl home for one flippin' weekend. It might actually be great. I might not have to worry about walking in on some girl in the bathroom or the kitchen in clothes I normally don't want to see a stranger in." Ichigo muttered darkly under his breath and he swore he could hear Hichigo shouting in his inner world to kill Arashi. But that was ridiculous. He had lost his shinigami powers two years ago. There was no way to get his powers back. He had known that when he'd used Mugetsu. And yet...

He shook his head wildly. Nah, that couldn't be it, he was sure of it. And anyway Uryu would have told him by now to master his spiritual pressure control for god's sakes since he would have be attracting too many hollows. At least that's what Uryu had told him last time.

Drinking a cup of coffee while waiting for the toast to finish, Ichigo was surprised to see Orihime slip out of the building and start to leave towards the centre of Karakura town. She hadn't told anyone that she had been planning to head out and from the way she was reacting downstairs, he was pretty sure that she was masking her spiritual pressure as well as hiding from anyone who knew her well enough to know that she wasn't actually supposed to be going anywhere at this time.

"Hmm, I wonder what she's doing. Maybe Uryu'll know." And with that Ichigo pushed the topic out of his mind. After all, his stomach was making it known that he hadn't eaten since noon time yesterday. He quickly washed and dried the cup and spoon, took his jacket and locked the door behind him. Today was the first day of the week of half-term they were getting. He and the others were all meeting up at nine o'clock in the restaurant where Ichigo worked part-time to have a celebratory breakfast.

As he was walking towards the restaurant, he wandered what Rukia and the others might be doing now.

~.~.~.~.~

Nel looked around herself as she and Grimmjow stood in front of an appartment door in one of the more fancier towers in the centre of Karakura town.

"How can you be so sure that she really is here?" Nel asked Grimmjow, still slightly sceptical the _she_ would have chosen to live here.

"I just do okay." Grimmjow muttered annoyed. "She _is_ my twin after all so I do kinda have a knack for finding her."

"Calm down Grimmjow, I wasn't referring to your ability to find her. I'm just surprised that she would live here of all places." Nel looked around again, still unsure that this was the right place.

"Come on, I'm sure that she's..."

Suddenly the door creeked open and a petite silver-haired woman stood in front of them.

"Ari." They both heaved a sigh of relief.

* * *

><p><em>AN: So now a new character has entered the picture and this is where "Memories" might become useful since Ari's past is partially explained there. However, the chain reaction only increases from now on. =P =)_


	5. Lost Peace

_Forever and Always_

_Chapter 5 - Lost Peace_

When you reach the point where you want to strangle everyone close to you, then you should know that you are properly stressed out. Rukia was sure that she had reached that point by the point in time where she and the rest of the company from the Gotei 13 had spent three hours trying to find out where they were.

So far without success.

Everyone was panicking, well, maybe except Captain Kyoraku. They had no contact to the Soul Society, none of them could open the senkaimon and, as Renji had just figured out, they had no food with them either. Whatever had gone wrong on their journey to the World of the Living had also caused them to land here. In the middle of Japan with no clue where they were.

"We're in the middle of nowhere." Yachiru stated, as if she had just realised that.

"Yeah, I thought I could see Ichigo again and fight him. But this, this is no fun." How did Kenpachi manage to always look bored. And what was even more disturbing, why was he thinking about fighting Ichigo?

"We're all doomed!" Renji moaned, apparently not caring that everyone was giving him the death-stare.

"We just have to keep a cool head and think about it in a calm and organised fashion." As usual, Byakuya was managing to remain calm.

"With all due respect Captain Kuchiki, but how can you even think of remaining calm in a situation like this?" Soi Fon's voice was starting to rise. "I'm sure Urahara is behind this, he has to be!" The last part was probably meant to herself though.

"Not if he values his life." Ikkaku muttered, the thought of spending more than a few hours in Rangiku's prescence horrifying him.

"I agree with Ikkaku, even Urahara can't have such a bad taste as to send us to a place this ugly." Yumichika was staring at the marsh around them in disgust.

"If that's all he worries about..." Shunsui muttered, looking over to Yumichika with raised eyebrows.

"Please guys, come on, we don't have to fight." Hanataro was making a valiant stand to calm everyone down.

Izuru jumped in before anyone else could say anything. "Yeah, I agree with Hanataro, why don't we try to get along, at least until we find the person responsible for this... um... blunder."

"If you believe that it would help, I think we should try and get along." Byakuya's icy demeanor wasn't really helping in re-enforcing that statement.

"I'm starving." Renji said after a couple of minutes of silence. Then he saw Byakuya's face and seemed to remember then that senbonsakura's hilt was perilously close to Byakuya's hand. "On second thought, I don't think I'm that hungry though."

"Why don't we try and find someone who is spiritually aware and ask them where we are?" Nemu seemed to be the only one who was thinking straight.

"That's a good idea Lieutenant, why don't we head off straight away?" Jushiro seemed to be happy that the tensions were starting to reduce themselves a bit now that the others had something that they could do.

"Yeah, the longer we spend around here doing nothing, the longer the people in Karakura will be unprotected." Toushiro said, with what one could call a long suffering sigh.

"Oh come on Captain, don't be such a grouch. I remembered to bring some sake!" Rangiku was in high spirits. As always.

Shuhei sighed. "Come on guys, let's go."

And so the probably strangest looking company ever to have walked across that marsh, set out to find someone who could tell them where in the three dimensions' name they were.

~.~.~.~.~

"So, what brings you guys to my appartment?" Ari's mask of indifference was hiding the joy and relief at seeing her brother and friend again.

"We felt some strange spiritual pressure leaking into Hueco Mundo. We figured that the demons had figured out a way to break out of their dimension, but that they hadn't come to Hueco Mundo but were in fact in the Dangai precipitous world, as well as in the passageway between the Soul Society and the World of the Living." Nel started, making herself comfortable in the beanbag in front of the T.V..

"However we knew that the demons hadn't actually entered one of the other dimensions yet, however close they may have been to it." Grimmjow took a sip of the tea that Ari had set in front of them. "Otherwise we would have felt a shift in the spiritual balance between the dimensions in this world and the dimensions in the creator's world."

"Yeah," Nel nodded her head at Grimmjow, "And on top of that we also heard that Aizen had broken out and that he was nowhere to be found. Considering what he did last time 'round, we guessed that he would come back to Hueco Mundo sooner rather than later."

"And neither one of us wanted to be around for that." Grimmjow muttered darkly, hating the thought of coming face-to-face with that soul reaper again.

"However we also knew that after Aizen's previous dealings with the people residing here in Karakura town, that he would come back to seek revenge on them for what they've done to him. Especially on Ichigo Kurosaki, Kisuke Urahara and Shinji Hirako, who were the biggest contributor's to his downfall." Nel was staring intently at the chocolate in the bowl now, contemplating heavily on whether to take one or not.

Ari held out the bowl of chocolate to Nel. "So you think he's gonna show up here again, seeking revenge for something that happened two years ago?" Ari raised her eyebrow.

"Precisely." Grimmjow lounged back in his seat.

"But what does that have to do with you two showing up here?" Ari asked, although she already knew the answer to that question.

"It's obvious isn't it." Nel said while reaching for another chocolate. "I for one have helped Ichigo before and Grimmjow has to repay him for saving his life from Nnoitra in Hueco Mundo. But even more importantly, we simply wish to aid them. Aizen reminds us of those demons, cold, cruel and unthinking."

"And you know what they say. Your enemy's enemies are your friends." Grimmjow said darkly.

Both of them stared out of the window. Silently lost in thought.

"Start at the beginning of the story, I don't think I know it all." Ari said quietly.

Grimmjow sighed. They were in for a very long night.

~.~.~.~.~

Ichigo grimaced. Maybe he shouldn't have said anything to Uryu about Orihime slipping out earlier that morning after all. The way he was questioning her right now just felt plain wrong to him.

"Uryu, I think Orihime knew what she was doing. Why don't we just concentrate on relaxing a little? After all we did have one long and tiring term just now." Ichigo tried to relax the situation a little. After all, it was partially his fault that Orihime was being subjected to Uryu's persistant questions.

If looks could kill, then Ichigo was sure he would have died right there and then. Without fail.

"Well we tell each other where we go don't we? What if a hollow had appeared and she had been injured? Hmm? What then Ichigo?" Okay now Uryu's questions were really starting to get on Ichigo's nerves.

"I think that we should have more faith in Orihime, after all she survived more than any of us would have thought." Mizuiro took a short pause from texting his current girlfriend to defend Orihime.

"Yes and how could anyone ever hurt poor sweet Orihime..." Just as Keigo leaned in to hug Orihime, Tatsuki's fist came flying straight into his face, which in turn let Keigo fly straight across the room.

"Chizuru just left. I thought I might have some reprieve from holding idiots off of her but no. You have to ruin it all Keigo." Tatsuki sure wasn't looking happy.

"I'm sorry Tatsuki, I just forgot." Keigo was cowering in a corner, trying very hard not to pull Tatsuki's wrath on himself.

"Mr. Asano, you should really know better by now than to try and hug Orihime." Mizuiro didn't make the effort to look up from his phone this time around.

"You should be on my side Mizuiro! And how can you be so cold? And why are you always so formal to me?" Keigo wailed. Ichigo just shook his head as he watched Keigo rant on to Mizuiro about friendships and kindness and warmth. He was also pretty sure that if Keigo didn't stop soon, then Tatsuki would blow a fuse.

"It's cold outside." Chad said to Ichigo as Ichigo stared out of the window. Never being one for many words, Chad always managed to encapsulate the important part of what he had to say in those few words. Sometimes Ichigo wished that Keigo would take a page out of Chad's book and not talk as much as he did.

Suddenly all of them looked outside. It seemed as if the storm that they had seen gathering earlier was about to start. Thankfully the café that they were sat in was on the ground floor of their appartment building, so all they had to do was walk up their respective flights of stairs, or take the elevator to the right floor and then they would be there.

Those clouds seemed to represent Ichigo's current state of mind. It was in utter turmoil. He kept thinking about the Gotei 13 and all his friends there. But most importantly, he was thinking about Rukia. About how much he actually missed her. But not even over his own dead body would he admit that. The clouds seemed to be carrying a malevolence and evil in them that made Ichigo seriously doubt that the fragile peace of the past two years would hold.

* * *

><p><em>AN: I'd like to thank Lago and EveryDei for their reviews on Chapter 3, thanks a bunch. =)  
>So this is the fifth chapter done. Hopefully the storyline isn't moving too slow. =P <em>


	6. Confusion

_Forever and Always_

_Chapter 6 - Confusion_

Byakuya slowly opened his eyes as soon as he realised that the stabbing pain in his back wouldn't just go away as he had been hoping it would. Cursing silently to himself he realised that he wasn't in his comfortable bed back in his private quaters at the Squad 6 barracks, nor his room at the Kuchiki residence. He was lying on the floor. Next to an apparently very comfortable Renji Abarai and a seemingly less comfortable Toushiro Hitsugaya.

Rubbing the back of his head as he got up he wondered if there was anything that might possibly snore louder than his lieutenant was at the moment. If he remembered correctly though, Ichigo Kurosaki had once said that sleeping in the same room as his lieutenant and his mod sol, Kon, was pure torture. Rukia had agreed, saying that they sometimes even managed to snore in harmony, something he couldn't find that hard to believe.

Muttering to himself again, he started to move further away, closer to the lone boulder, and further away from his snoring lieutenant. Trying to remember why exactly they were here and not in the Soul Society, the reality of what had happened over the last day came crashing down on him.

They were stuck in the World of the Living. And to be more precise, in the middle of nowhere. He looked across the empty marshes and tried to figure out if he could be in an even worse position right now than he already was. Thinking about it, he guessed he could. Being stuck between Ichigo Kurosaki and his lieutenant. Now that thought made him shudder.

Looking towards the rising sun he remembered what day it was today. Yeah, he remembered. It was the 25th of November and as the sun rose further and further up above the horizon he swore that the world was trying to mock him since apparently even in the World of the Living the horrid weather that was normal in November went on holiday and gave everyone one of the most beautiful days of the winter.

As a lone leaf started fluttering towards him, he sat down gently on the large boulder, lost in thought while waiting for the rest of the Gotei 13 company to wake up.

~.~.~.~.~

Rukia sighed as she turned over. Only to be confronted with the absolutely beautiful view of an insect infested shrub. Giving off a slight squeak she shot up, only to bump her head on a branch of the only tree in what seemed to be the whole marsh.

Blinking several times to accustom herself to the growing daylight, she looked over to see her brother sitting on the boulder from last night, staring out across the marsh, apparently lost deep in thought.

Giving off a slight groan she couldn't help but notice Renji's loud snoring from not too far away and guessed correctly that that had been the reason for her brother's early waking. For as long as she had known Byakuya, he had always been a morning person, waking up when the first rays of light hit the land. But he had always been an easy sleeper too. In the first few months after being adopted into the Kuchiki household, she had found it close to impossible to adapt to the silent household, often wandering for nights on end. But in a way she guessed that it should only have been expected, especially after growing up in the Rukongai with Renji and his snoring for a roomate. And it had never been silent in the Rukongai, someone had always been up and about, doing something. Especially in the area where they had lived.

Her constant wandering around the house in the night had often woken her brother up, she knew that much at least. He had never said anything to her about it, but then he hardly ever did bother her with what he viewed as trivial matters that were of a personal nature. But she had known. She had known that often after she had started to walk around the house that a dim light would go on in his quaters and he would either read a book or write something while he waited for her to settle back down so that he could sleep again peacefully.

And she guessed she had adapted to the ominous silence of the house. The ever-pressing down silence of that house. It had felt like stones at first, weighing down on her with the expectations to behave like a Kuchiki should. And then when she had stayed with Ichigo, she had felt with surprise the pleasure of being in a lively household once again. The fights between Ichigo and his father each night at the dinner table. Yuzu and Karin talking right next door in their own room. Ah yes, and one couldn't forget the pleasure of Kon's constant snoring when he slept. It was truly no wonder that Ichigo had often been awake long before his father decided to undergo one of his 'wake-up calls'.

Sadly she stared across the marsh, trying to see what her brother might be seeing in the distance. But her thoughts were elsewhere. They were with Ichigo and with all the inhabitants of Karakura town. Right now, in moments like these, in moments where she could simply sit there and have nothing to do, those were the worst. Those were the moments when she felt like crawling into a corner and crying because she missed the World of the Living so much. There she hadn't felt the constant need to impress those around her, to live up to their expectations, to not disappoint them.

When she had stayed with Ichigo she had never felt like he was expecting somethig of her. He had simply lived alongside her, accepting her for who she was and believing in her and her strengths, even when she had felt like giving up. The orange-haired nutcase had given her a new reason to try and be better. He had made her want to try and be better because she wanted to be, not because someone else expected her to be.

Over the past two years she had tried so hard to keep all those feelings inside. The feeling of longing to come back, the irrational feeling of missing all her friends here, but above all, of missing Ichigo. Sometimes she was sure that she wasn't able to contain that feeling, that she had showed it because in those moments, her Captain would look at her sympathetically and ask her to do some paperwork so that she might be distracted. Her brother would simply look at her and she was never able to tell what precise emotion was playing in his eyes.

Byakuya had always been unreadable like that, closed off, stony, seemingly uncaring. She had once overheard some of the servants talking about it. They had been young servants, younger even than her, newer than her to the household. She had just been about to enter and tell them to mind their own business when one of the older servants had said something to them, something that had surprised even her.

He had told them that they didn't understand why he was like that. And that until they had lost what he had lost, that they would never understand the depth of the pain he was concealing. It had been Jiro who had said that, good old Jiro who had been with the household longer than anyone could remember. The others had been quiet after that, but only until Jiro had gone to do some work elsewhere. It was then that they had expressed their confusion at what he had said, not unlike the confusion she had felt at that moment too.

Pulling herself out of her memories she noticed that the rest of the company was starting to wake up and as she also noticed the amount of light now present she wondered how long she had spent sitting there, lost in thought. Looking up she noticed that her brother hadn't moved either, stuck in precisely the same place as before.

She had been so happy when she had thought that she could see Ichigo again so soon. She should have known better than to expect a simple reunion with all her friends from Karakura. Getting up from her uncomfortable position she thought about how long they would have to search before finding out where they were and also how long they would be able to cope with spending so much time with one another.

~.~.~.~.~

At that precise moment in time Ichigo was cursing Arashi to hell and back. The idiot had come home last night and had locked the door as well as leaving the key in the door, obviously forgetting that he had a room mate living in the same appartment as him. That had left Ichigo to stand in front of the door for twenty minutes ringing the doorbell with no response. Which had then meant that he had had to spend the night on the couch in Uryu's appartment which had left him with a very cramped neck. And now the idiot wasn't opening the door even after fifteen minutes of continuously ringing the doorbell.

Just as Ichigo was about to run the door down Arashi opened the door, looking like he had been to hell and back. Ichigo decided that he would save his tirade for later and find out first what had happened while he had spent the night on Uryu's couch.

However, he couldn't help himself. "Do you know how frickin' long I have been standing outside this door, ringing the doorbell?" Ichigo nearly shouted at him. "Fifteen whole minutes! And that doesn't include the twenty I spent ringing last night! Oh yeah and in case I forgot to mention this, I had to spend the night on Uryu's couch!" Ichigo was positively seething by now. He had never been known to be a particular patient person and the fact that he had had nearly no sleep on top of a cramped neck wasn't helping to make him more tolerable.

"Sorry Ichigo, I guess... I guess I was just a bit busy last night." Arashi said quietly, hanging his head.

"Never mind it." Ichigo sighed. "But dude, seriously, what happened to your face?"

Arashi smiled weakly. "Looks real good, doesn't it?"

Ichigo laughed slightly, trying to lighten the mood. "Yeah, a real prime example." He grinned but that faded quickly when he saw Arashi's expression. "Seriously though, what the hell happened Arashi?"

Arashi looked away, his face in utter dispair. "Well, you know my dad right?" He queried as he sat down and Ichigo moved to the kitchen to make some tea.

"Yeah, I've seen him before, never talked to him though. What about him?" He turned back around again.

"Well, you see..." Arashi started, trailing off uncertainly. "My dad he got involved with some guys."

"What kind of guys?" Ichigo asked, his eyes beginning to narrow.

"The wrong kind." Arashi whispered softly, his eyes looking into the distance. Unseeing, empty.

Ichigo started to feel uneasy. "What happened?"

"A month ago, they came for him. But he wasn't there. He'd taken all the money out of my mom's and his account and left the country. Running away from them. And then they thought that he might come back if they threatened him by threatening the people he cared about. But he didn't. So they got impatient."

Ichigo's eyes narrowed dangerously as he started to piece together what had happened. "So they came for you." It wasn't a question. It was a statement.

"Yeah. That bastard had told them where me and my mom lived. And they came for me first. But that's not the worst part, I've been beaten by guys like that before, that's not the problem. The fact is that my dad took all the money. All of it. My mom's and mine. All that the both of us had saved up throughout the years. So now I can't pay the rent here and I can't pay the university fees. I spent last night packing. My train leaves at three." Arashi looked absolutely distraught. Ichigo knew that despite his partying attitude, that Arashi had truly enjoyed the life here at the university with all the chances it had to offer.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" He asked, unsure if there was anything that could be done.

"Thanks Ichigo but I have to go back to my mom. She's all alone now that my dad left and I can't leave her that way, especially not if those men decide to go to her next time instead of me." In Arashi's eyes there was a new-found sense of determination and steel that Ichigo hadn't seen before.

"I see. Well good luck and maybe I'll see you again next term or the term after when you and your mom have everything straightened out again." Ichigo smiled at Arashi, willing it to be so. What Arashi's father had done disgusted him and he felt truly sorry for Arashi and his mother.

"Thanks Ichigo." Arashi's smile was genuine now. "I hope that it's gonna be like that. You know what they say, you can't keep the party animal away from the party." Ichigo grinned at that, nothing was more true.

"Well good-bye then." Ichigo said as Arashi started to leave.

"Bye Ichigo." Arashi nodded shortly before throwing a smile at him and holding his hand above his head in a wave.

It was only a couple hours later that Ichigo remembered that Arashi had an older brother and a younger sister. Why hadn't Arashi mentioned them at all?

* * *

><p><em>AN:_ _First of all I'd like to thank **Lago** for their review on chapter 5, I agree, it is kind of hard to imagine how such operations would work, which is why I decided to try and exploit the traits of all of these quite different people. I'd also like to thank all those who added this story to their favourites list as well as all those who added it to their story alert list, I'm incredibly happy that you guys enjoy my story._

_But back to this chapter, I decided that after the past few chapters that I should start adding in a bit more of Rukia's PoV since she is after all one of the main characters. The scene at the end is important, Arashi and his family will play an important role, but that will be revealed later on in the plot._


	7. Change

_Forever and Always_

_Chapter 7 - Change_

"Well well, you sure went through a lot of trouble to not look like yourself." Grimmjow smirked at Ari, knowing that that statement would irritate the hell out of her. For one specific reason. Because she had never truly cared whether she was recognised or not, or whether she did indeed look strange with that hair of hers.

"Hmmpf." She turned towards him, annoyance written clear across her face. "First of all it's called to not be recognised since quite frankly I think we'd all like to stay anonymous in this world." Her temper was starting to flare again. He'd been worried when she'd been so nice at the start but after he'd gotten his first elbow into his side for a long time, he was sure she was simply exerting a large amount of control on her part to keep her temper in check.

"And second of all, I'm quite proud of my invention since it not only alters our physical appearance for two weeks straight, but it also completely masks our enormous spiritual pressure, making us appear no more than mere humans. And that," Now he swore that her grin was just plain diabolical. "Is the key to us remaining unfound and undisturbed."

"Pfft, well I hope that you're not thinking that I would ever enter such a strange machine. _Especially_ since it was built and invented by _you_." He grinned at that, knowing full well that if she had built it, it would probably end up being the most stable machine ever invented, especially if you considered her pickiness when she did things.

"Well your own fault," she shot back at him. "If you want to spend your time in the human world looking like some punk _and_ be objected to the possibility of being recognised by past enemies, well fine. Be. My. Guest." And with a huff she entered one cabin of the machine while Nel entered another. But Grimmjow couldn't help but notice that despite Nel chiding him for trying to rile his sister up, she wasn't looking any happier about entering the strange, wardrobe-shaped machine herself.

He heard a soft 'click' from inside the machine and knew that Ari had probably pressed the button which started the machine inside. Looking at it, he wondered why Ari had built it the shape she had but admitted that it did fit in well with its surroundings, making it appear as if it was simply a large ochre coloured wardrobe, which was meant to have your coats and jackets hung inside.

He was just starting to make himself comfortable, unsure of how long the machine would take to work its 'magic' when the door swung open and Ari and Nel stepped back into the room. Grimmjow stared at them in open-mouthed shock, unsure if what he was seeing was truly reality or just a dream.

It wasn't that their spiritual pressure equaled that of a normal human's, oh no, he had been expecting that. After all if Ari said something, she normally meant it. It was their physical appearance which caused him to start and jump up from his seat in shock, he was sure that he had just been taken back in history. Back to the time before the accident.

Nel seemed to think the same, she didn't seem to be able to comprehend how her physical appearance could change so drastically to what it had been, once upon a time. Gone were the golden streaks from Ari's hair, gone was the illuminating silver that he had grown so accustomed to over the centuries. Gone were the golden flecks from her turquoise eyes, the birthmark and symbol on her arm. Gone were the colourful tattooes which had singled her out as something different. Instead she was his younger twin sister again, the way she had been while they had still been innocent of the workings of this world. Her eyes were simply the stunning turquoise they had always been, accenting her delicate features not as much as the golden flecks within them normally did. Her hair fell over her shoulders in the tell-tale chestnut that had marked them as part of the Hitsugaya-Jaegerjaquez clan. Staring up into his light-blue eyes sadly she smiled, knowing that the impact had to be great.

Nel was not much different. Gone were the features that time had caused to exist. Gone was the scar from across her face, making the skin underneath her eyes become smooth once more. Gone was the green hair that had shone so vibrantly against its surroundings, especially in a place like Hueco Mundo. Instead her former locks of caramel-blond hair fell past her shoulders, and as she looked at herself in the mirror, she looked confused at what seemed to be a simple trick of the imagination.

Looking at each other, they felt like they were being transported back in time, back to the day of the accident...

_It had been a beautiful morning to be sure, they had spent the whole day running through the fields, screaming in delight at the first day of wonderful weather that this summer had to offer. Noticing how the servants around them seemed to be preoccupied by something else, they decided to use this opportunity and visit their younger sister in hospital. It was forbidden, but their older sister had driven off in the morning to see her, so why, on a day as beautiful as this, shouldn't they be able to go and visit her and share their joy with her?_

_Nel and Ulquiorra were running up ahead through the fields, they had just whizzed past Grandma Aiko, shouting a brief 'hello' to her before rushing on, feeling exhilerated at the prospect of seeing Lissa again._

_Nel and Ulquiorra were their best friends, they knew that for sure. Both of them had similar eyes as they did, piercing colours that expressed their feelings so well, but colours that most people were afraid of._

_Toushiro had just fallen down, he was still younger than the four of them, but not less energetic by sure. Ari ran over quickly, laughing as he started to get up and took his hand, grinning while they started to run after the other three, sure that they would catch up in no time at all._

_Grimmjow grinned, he may only be eight, but he could run fast but he tried in vain to catch up with Ulquiorra and Nel, they had already reached the hill, laughing as he was trying to move up it with the same speed that he had been exhibiting before. Behind him he could hear his sister and brother laughing, enjoying the wind rushing through their hair. Both of them were smaller than they were supposed to be, yet that didn't deter them from attempting to be as fast as anyone else. If not, even faster._

_Looking up towards Ulquiorra and Nel he noticed with suprise the fear in their faces as they opened their mouthes to shout to them. He never heard the shout. Having stopped shortly to catch his breath, he turned around just in time to see their estate mansion, their home, explode into flames, and he knew he'd feel the aftershock of that explosion in his dreams for a long time to come._

_He saw his sister, Ari, and his brother, Toushiro, being thrown forward by the impact. He and the other two were thrown backwards, and the last thing that he remembered were the scorching flames that came towards them, engulfing them like some wild creature._

_After what felt like hours later, he woke up and felt a stabbing pain in his leg. Pushing himself upright he looked at the devastation around him and the part of him that was still eight years old wanted to curl up in a ball and cry. As the others got up as well they looked at each other in shock, not able to comprehend what was happening. The tell-tale chestnut hair of him and his brother and sister had turned different colours. Theirs, since they had appeared to be closest to the blast had turned an illuminating silver, appearing to shine through the smoke around them. His, with him being the next closest was darker in colour, a beautiful light blue, the kind that even the sky wasn't able to replicate. And Ulquiorra and Nel's, being the furthest back had turned from the caramel-blond hair of the two cousins, to black and green respectively._

_They spent hours staring at each other in shock, before being able to get up and run away, away from the devastation, away from the incident that had so changed their young lives in an instant._

~.~.~.~.~

Ichigo muttered annoyed to himself, sure that the world truly hated him. First he had opened his eyes to the absolutely wonderful sight of a close-up Uryu next to an even closer Kon. As if that hadn't given him the heart attack of the day. But no, that was when he noticed that they had woken him up at 6:30, way too early for him to get up. He simply wasn't a morning person. Period.

But that hadn't been all, he had had to listen to Uryu begin a long winded explanation, of which he maybe understood three words all together before he forced Uryu to give him a straight answer to what he was talking about. In one sentence. And that had been that his spiritual pressure seemed to be appearing to be giving some flickers of life. That had resulted in him staring at Uryu in shock for a minute straight before Uryu had huffed out of the appartment, telling him that he should _seriously_ start to learn to have some sort of control over his spiritual pressure.

Otherwise Uryu would kill him since he didn't want to be spending his university life chasing after the hollows that Ichigo attracted with his spiritual pressure as he had during his school life. Definitely one of the nicest things people had ever said to him at 7:30 in the morning, he was sure of it.

But his problems hadn't stopped there. Now that Arashi was gone, he had to take care of the grocery shopping as well. In all honesty, Orihime had offered to help him prepare his meals and everything and help him with his shopping as well, but that was one offer that he didn't feel that bad about turning down. Just the thought of the watermelon and curry flavoured ramen, with chocolate flakes sprinkled on top, that he had had to eat last time that he and the others had met at her place made him gag slightly. To put it nicely, it simply hadn't been to his taste. Or anyone else's for that matter.

After shopping for all the stuff he needed to get through the next week, he had looked at the time and with a start realised that his shift in the restaurant started in half an hour. That gave him half an hour to get all the groceries stored away safely, change into his uniform and run the distance that would normally take fifteen minutes to walk. It was only 11:30 and he already felt like he could go back into bed. Great.

Muttering to himself again he went around with what he was proud to call a neutral facial expression rather than the frown that he felt like wearing. Taking the orders of three more tables he walked to the counter to enter them into the machine. That was when he noticed Orihime standing outside the shop, talking to the same man he had seen her talk to at least twice before. Cursing his position in that he was not able to go outside, he tried to situate himself closer to the window so that he could see to whom she was talking.

"I'm sure Orihime would be absolutely flattered to know that you are so concerned about her that you even spy on her from the window." A voice behind him said, in what was obviously quite a sarcastic tone.

Jumping at the sound of the voice, as well as the fact that he had been caught, he turned around to face a fellow waitress of his, a petite chestnut-haired woman, smirking up at him. "Geez Ari, you didn't have to surprise me like that."

"Life's full of surprises." She said with what he would consider a slightly diabolical grin before turning away to walk towards another table to take an order.

Groaning he walked towards another table himself, hoping and praying that she wouldn't use the fact of catching him trying to figure out who this mystery man was to blackmail him. Blackmail him into doing stuff like the washing up to get out of it herself.

"Just great. This is so not my day." He murmered to himself as he smiled back at the woman he had just taken the next order from. Smiling at him flirtatiously she handed him a piece of paper. Presumably with her number on it. Nodding towards her, feeling rather uncomfortable, he walked towards the counter.

Grinning at him again Ari asked; "And, it was her number, right?" Grimacing at her she nodded. Discreetly she took the number from him and speared it on a pile where the rest of the numbers that women had given him lay. Since the university and therefore also his living quaters were in a different part of Karakura, more towards the centre than the outskirts of where he had been living, he didn't know most of the people living here. Therefore most of them didn't know him either or the reputation he had had back in high school.

"And that was number three hundred and forty-eight." She stated aloud, grinning at him and at Haruo, who was coming up behind him.

"Oh come on, seriously now?" Haruo, one of the other three waiters along whom he worked said. "How do you manage to get all those numbers Ichigo? Can you teach me the trick? Because right now, I've only been given a number fifty times, that leaves me in place three." Ichigo grimaced again, starting to open his mouth to say that it wasn't his fault the women were so strange here when Ari interrupted them.

"Sorry to break your little competition of numbers but Ichigo, you take table fifteen, your friends have just arrived and are about to sit down at it. And I seriously think that Tatsuki'll knock Kaito out if he tries to make a move on her again." She was the one grimacing now, all of them knowing that Kaito was truly a pervert and that despite the fact that nearly everyone would love to see him have his lights knocked out, it would probably mean that Tatsuki would be banned from the restaurant for some time at least.

Ichigo thanked Ari quickly, hoping that Kaito was busy with some orders elsewhere and wouldn't cause even more trouble than he was worth, since to be perfectly honest, the last thing that Ichigo needed right now was even more chaos and trouble. Boy, he sure didn't know that the storm brewing would only be offering more.

* * *

><p><em>AN: First I'd like to thank **adri001 **and **sp****litheart1120** for their reviews on chapter 6. Thanks a bunch! =D  
>For the first part of this chapter we get a flash back to the memories of Grimmjow, Nel and Ulquiorra. Since not that much is known about their past before they became hollows or even Arrancars, I decided to look a bit deeper into that. =)<em>


	8. Arrival

_Forever and Always_

_Chapter 8 - Arrival_

Rukia was incredibly tempted to simply use Bakudo Kidos on all her travel companions, preferrably ones which would silence them, so that she might actually be able to think in peace and silence. After spending another three hours after the sunrise looking for any sign of where they were, they had come across a town. Lucky enough for them, that town had a train station. And one particular train left at 9:30, straight to Karakura town.

For once all of them, well maybe apart from Kenpachi, had thanked whatever greater power had led them here and had boarded the train. Nanao had of course muttered something about that the fact that we were getting on a train without paying the fee was wrong, but everyone had ignored her. Instead they focused on making themselves comfortable in an empty cabin, finally glad to know where they were and to be on their way to Karakura town.

For the first hour of their travel they all had simply been content to sit in silence, finally glad to not be walking knee-deep through a marsh. But then Renji had complained about being hungry and he and Ikkaku, along with Yumichika, Izuru, Shuhei and Rangiku had wandered off to find some food.

And by the sound of it they had. There seemed to be a small commotion occuring further down the train, but none of them could be bothered to get up and see what was happening, or to be more precise, what the others had caused to happen. But seeing how her brother's temper was starting to rise exponentially, Rukia got up out of her seat and started to walk down the aisle, intent on making them at least be a lot quieter.

The scene that she reached just made her groan in annoyance and desperation. There were the lot of them, apparently having found something to drink, only that it wasn't something harmless like water or juice. No, it looked like it was wine, and they seemed to have consumed a fair amount of it already since a faint blush was spreading out across their cheeks. All of them appeared to be in high spirits, laughing loudly and telling jokes.

But they weren't the only ones creating a commotion. They seemed to have forgotten that while they were invisible, the bottles and wine and food obviously weren't. So from the perspective of the poor person who was meant to be patroling through this wagon, the food and drink were moving on their own. Oh yeah, and were being consumed into nothingness.

Quite frankly, the poor man looked like he was about to have a heart attack.

Glancing back she was at first relieved when she saw Captain Kyoraku coming towards her. Then she remembered his reputation as possibly one of the greatest drinkers within the Soul Society and groaned. The situation seemed to be accumulating from bad to worse.

Deciding that there was nothing that she could possibly do to stop them anyway, she used the memory modification on the poor man and sent him along his way before locking the rooms which they had occupated either way, putting a large PLEASE DO NOT ENTER! REPARATIONS GOING ON on the doors.

It was a wonder that they had lasted together this long. Last night when Captain Soi Fon had kicked Renji across the place as well as her brother nearly releasing his senbonsakura on Rangiku, Ikkaku and Yumichika to stop their bickering, she had been sure that at least one of them would stand in trail before central forty-six for murdering one of their companions. But somehow, and she was sure that it was some kind of divine miracle, none of them had been killed. Yet.

Looking over towards her brother she was shocked to see complete desolation and pain wash over his face. She blinked quickly, sure that it was simply an illusion. Looking again, her brother appeared to be his normal stony self again. Sighing with relief she stared out of the window. She could deal with a distant brother, one that was cold at times too. But she knew that she absolutely could not deal with a brother who had looked as vulnerable as her brother had a second ago.

Smiling to herself in contentment, she realised that it was only three more hours until they would reach Karakura train station. Only three more hours until she could see all her friends again. Only three more hours, and here she frowned at herself in confusion, until she could see Ichigo again.

~.~.~.~.~

Kisuke Urahara wasn't normally a man he was easily surprised. He knew nearly everything that went on. In the World of the Living as well as the Soul Society. There was no doubt in anybody's mind that he might even know what went on in Hueco Mundo as well. That was after all why so many people came to him and his 'humble' shop.

When he had told Yuroichi that she had simply smiled at him with exasperation in her eyes before turning into a cat and giving a quick 'meow' before vanishing off into the night. She usually did that when she knew that he was right. She was loath to admit it though, which was why she more often than not took that certain opportunity to go off.

Right now, he had different problems though. Contact to the Soul Society had been gone for days, and despite him being exiled here in the World of the Living, that did not mean that he wasn't even able to contact them. Yuroichi was especially worried too. She had been trying to contact Soi Fon, Captain of Squad 2, but to no avail. And when she had tried to enter into the Soul Society it hadn't worked either. Despite being a lover of unsolved mysteries, Kisuke didn't particularily like this one.

On top of that he had a cold of all things, and the liquid that Tessai was attempting to make him swallow, while proclaiming that it worked one hundred percent, looked like black muck. And he had seen the expiry date on the bottle. And _that_ said that the contents should have expired five years ago. He certainly did not need diarhea on top of a cold. Thank you very much.

But hiding from Tessai wasn't as easy as most people liked to think. Especially if he had Ururu and Jinta helping him. And at the moment Yuroichi seemed to have joined the fray as well. Probably just to annoy him though. At that thought he grimaced.

Suddenly there was a knock on the door. The others hadn't heard it though by the looks of it since they were still rummaging through his room further back. Still looking for him.

When the second knock came even louder than the first he got up from his hiding place with a sigh and walked to the front of his shop. Opening the door slowly while planting a huge, loopy grin on his face, he started to ask; "Good day, how may I help..." when he saw who it was. That stopped him right in his tracks. And probably gave him a miniture heart attack. Because by the looks of it, half of the Gotei 13 captains and lieutenants were gathered in his front yard.

Coming up behind him and noticing that something was obviously wrong since he probably appeared to be gasping for air, he felt Yuroichi frown. "What's the matter Kisuke?" She asked. Then she saw their front yard. And she also appeared to have a miniture heart attack since she stopped in her tracks and leaned on to Kisuke's arm in shock.

The company gathered in that front yard, nearly all of them with frowns on their faces should have been proud of themselves and their accomplishment. They had just managed to surprise both Kisuke Urahara and Yuroichi Shihoin of all people into silence.

~.~.~.~.~

Staring at Kisuke, Rukia wasn't quite sure she got what he was saying. Because if what he was saying was true, and guessing by the more than surprised expression on his face it probably was, he didn't have a single clue as to why they were stuck in the World of the Living any more than they had.

Apparently they had tried to enter the Soul Society after feeling a strange change in the balances. At least Yuroichi had tried, neither Kisuke nor Tessai could actually travel to the Soul Society, Jinta and Ururu were human, so that was an obvious reason why they couldn't go and Ririn, Noba and Kurodo were all mod sol's in Gigais, another obvious reason as to why they couldn't enter the Soul Society.

What worried her more though was the fact that no one in the shop had noticed anything strange with the portal prior to the moment when they had journeyed here, everything obviously being fine. And the fact that none of them knew of a strange demon-like creature, such as the one they'd seen and described, even existing added to her mountain of worries. And the others all seemed to feel the same unease about their current situation.

"Anyway, could you make a Gigai for everyone, since we obviously can't continue with our set mission in just our soul form." Toushiro said to Urahara, looking slightly bored as usual. At least one of them appeared to not be making too huge a fuss about it all. Well, excluding Kenpachi, he never made a fuss about anything unless he was either extremely bored or fighting.

"Well, it shouldn't be a problem, but it might take an hour or so." Kisuke scratched his chin, deep in thought. "After all, in all my time here in the world of the living I've never actually had to supply so many Gigais in such a short time."

Soi Fon scowled at him deeply. She despised Kisuke and she made no effort in hiding it. And he had obviously noticed that too.

"But it shouldn't be a problem at all." He reverted back to his old, ridiculous self. "After all there hasn't been anything yet that I can't do!" Grinning he walked towards the back.

"Tessai!" He shouted into the house.

"Yes sir?" The man always appeared out of nowhere. Nearly all of them jumped.

"I think it's time we used the 'Soul to Gigai' converter. After all, creating this many Gigais would surely leave our other machine in a jiffy!" Kisuke grinned at him.

"Of course, I'll get it out right away. Jinta, come and help me!" He called to the red haired boy standing nearby.

"Yeah yeah, if I really have to." He muttered. Suddenly he spied Renji. "Hey moocher!" He laughed as Renji's expression turned darker at the use of that name.

Byakuya raised his eyebrows in question, obviously wanting an answer as to why Jinta had just called his lieutenant that. Renji started hesitantly. "Well you see sir, it's a really long story..."

Rukia just shook her head as she watched Renji begin a long-winded explanation as to why Jinta had called him that. Thankfully Jinta wasn't there though. He was still helping Tessai get whatever strange machine Urahara had invented now out of the back.

She simply couldn't wait. Wait to feel the wind in her hair, to feel heat and cold, to be able to feel the roughness of a stone wall, the damp feeling one got when you got caught in the rain. She couldn't wait to feel the sun shining down on her, to feel the smooth texture of chocolate on her tongue, melting away, the sweetness of the juice, just like that first time. The first time that she had tasted juice out of a carton after Ichigo had shown her how to use a straw.

Smiling to herself she waited for the machine, simply so that she could _feel_ again.

~.~.~.~.~

Frowning innerly to himself, Byakuya looked over to his sister and was more than just slightly worried at the dreamy expression on her face. Over the past three days he had seen that expression quite frequently, and he sincerely hoped that it was not because of that boy, Ichigo Kurosaki.

While he did acknowledge and admire Ichigo's strength, as well as his resolve to fight for those he cared for, he still found him to be a rather rude character, brash, and absolutely unable to behave with the proper decorum needed. One good example may be that he insisted on calling all the lieutenants and captains by their first names, something which was normally strictly prohibited. But, being the son of Isshin Kurosaki, he guessed it could have been much worse.

Turning back to his lieutenant he noticed that Renji had stopped the long-winded explanation of as to why that boy, Jinta, had called him as he had and simply sighed in resignation. Renji, obviously glad to have gotten away without a lecture, quickly went over to Shuhei, also known as Lieutenant Hisagi of Squad 9. Turning their heads inwards, it seemed that they were beginning another of their ridiculous plots and Byakuya simply shook his head.

Since coming to the World of the Living he had felt uneasy, unsure of why exactly that may be. It could be because of the strange creature that might have caused their current position here, that even Kisuke Urahara had failed to identify or even know of so far. But it probably wasn't that. It was probably because for the past three nights he had been sleeping uneasily, but not due to the excesive noise made by the others as Rukia had thought.

No, it was the nightmares, or to be more specific, _the_ nightmare. The one that had once haunted him every night and later only when he was feeling particularily bad. But for the last three nights he had relived the terror of the attack on the hollow. The mission that had resulted in Ari's death. He didn't know why, but for some strange reason he thought that the creature from the passageway was somehow linked to the hollow from back then. But that should have been impossible since the hollow from back then had been slain by Ari before she had died herself.

When he had found out that that hollow which had killed Ari, and that years earlier a similar one to that one had also been responsible for the death of her brother, had been one of Aizen's experiments, anger so violent had seized him that he had nearly destroyed the Squad 6 training grounds. They had simply been an experiment gone wrong and Aizen, in his full-blown arrogance had simply released them into the world, not caring what kind of damage they might do.

Thankful for the crash of the Gigai machine on the ground, he broke off his train of thought and turned towards Kisuke and Tessai, seriously hoping that this machine of theirs wouldn't explode into their faces.

~.~.~.~.~

Rukia broke off her current dream of being in a Gigai again when she noticed the strange machine that had just been brought in by Jinta and Tessai. Frowning slightly, she wasn't sure whether or not she liked the look of it. Tilting her head slightly she examined it closer coming to the obvious conclusion that it simply looked like a huge, over-grown wardrobe.

"Come on now, don't be shy." Kisuke grinned. "This beautiful creation of mine won't bite you in the least!"

They all proceeded to stare at the wardrobe, not quite sure if he had been serious when he had called it beautiful.

"That's what you said about the last machine too. " Jinta complained. "And all that got us was Ururu nearly losing her head!"

They stared in horror at the machine, involuntarily touching their necks.

"Now now, that was a completely different machine though!" Kisuke whined while Tessai gave Jinta what could only be termed as an evil glare.

"Well we've got no choice but to go in." Rukia stated, already impatient again with the former captain of Squad 12. You would seriously expect him of all people to build things that at least _looked_ reliable.

"How many of us do you want to squash ourselves in at once?" Kenpachi asked, obviously impatient with the slow pace that things were going at.

Rukia was sure that she had not imagined the amused glint in Kisuke's eyes. "All of you." he said. She swallowed heavily. How on earth were all of them supposed to fit into that teensy thing?

Soi Fon wasn't the only one who was looking at Kisuke incredulously, seriously wondering if he had lost it, but she was the only one who was staring him down with an obvious intent to kill.

"Well, let's not prolong the inevitable, shall we?" Toushiro stated. He wasn't sure how safe it might be, but currently it was the only option to get a Gigai in the World of the Living.

"Yes Captain, let's go!" Rangiku was now pushing him into the machine. Why again was she a lieutenant?

"Matsumoto..." He growled, letting the sentence trail off since he didn't know how to tell her once again that he did _not_ want to have his head stuck in her bosom once again. But Rangiku just laughed as she pushed him in even further. At least one of them was in high spirits and not annoyed at someone else. Well, at least for the moment.

"Not long now..." Rukia murmered and she swore she could see her brother turn towards her, probably thinking that she was talking about Ichigo. And to be perfectly honest, she thought, she wasn't sure if she was able to honestly deny that that was not what she was thinking about while she had said that.

* * *

><p><em>AN: Merry Christmas everyone! This chapter was meant to be posted about a week ago but with all the Christmas preparations going on, I got a bit off track. Hopefully it's worth it though! =D_

Anyways I'd like to thank

_**splitheart1120** for their review on chapter 7, and no at the moment Toushiro doesn't really remember anything from before living with his grandma in the Soul Society, bu there will be more on the whys and hows later on. =)_


	9. Reunion

_Forever and Always_

_Chapter 9 - Reunion_

"Phew, that's the last of those done." Ichigo sighed happily at the thought that all the boxes containing the beer and wine for the bar of the restaurant would be gone.

"Dream on carrot." Ari said behind him, and as he turned around he saw another truck stopping at the back entrance to the restaurant.

"Why do we always have to have the boxes delivered at this time?" He moaned, despite already knowing the answer to that question.

"Because we've got two crazy bosses who sit further up the pecking order than we do, and who obviously have no idea about what a convenient timing is." Ari smiled back sweetly at him. Well at least she seemed to have her usual annoying self back, the rest of the day she'd seemed to have been stuck in some kind of daydream of some sort. At least it had seemed like that since she hadn't done anything but stare off into space for half the time.

"It's nice to see that the demon within you has awakened again." Junichi Yamashita, simply known to everyone as 'Joe' grinned at Ari as she scowled right back at him. Joe was the barkeeper at the Kobayashi restaurant and nobody could ever stay mad at him for long. He was the first son of his family but despite his name suggesting that he was obedient, he was anything but. He was twenty-three years old and had greatly angered his family when he had become the bartender of the restaurant. Not that he had cared much. As he always said; "If I did what my family wanted me to, I'd be stuck in a boring old lecture hall studying law." And anyone who knew that that was naming the impossible.

Joe had the sort of laid-back, relaxed attitude that let him live life as it came, never really worrying about anything at all. All the people who worked in the restaurant and went to university envied that kind of attitude from him, living as he did couldn't come naturally to most people.

Ichigo shook his head. They such a varied staff here at the Kobayashi restaurant, it was hard to believe how well they were able to get along most of the time. There was Manabu Ogawa, the chef, a man in his mid-thirties who never told his exact age. For a chef he was surprisingly thin and tall, but still a good head shorter than Ichigo. He had black hair which he kept short and spiked up with gel, he often went on about how important his hair was to him since if he had inherited enough of his father's genes, then he would turn bald by the age of forty. His eyes were a deep, hard brown, which pierced you to the core and made you feel as if he was examining you while thinking about how to best chop you up. He was a bustling, slightly neurotic man who kept his kitchen clinically clean, and if anybody dared enter the kitchen without a good excuse for disturbing him, well, then you were in trouble.

Next there were the waiters of the restaurant. Kaito Fujita was maybe an even bigger pervert than Kon, and that was truly saying something. He flirted with every girl that entered the restaurant and more than once had been severly hit by Tatsuki for trying to make a move on her and Orihime. He had slick brown hair that he also kept cropped short, he didn't want it to get dirty was what he said. He also had large, dreamy, dark green eyes which normally let him hit it off well with the girls, especially with the cheerleaders from the college. He was the privileged twenty year old son of some official who sat in the Karakura council and always went on about how great he sometimes had it. Ichigo had his doubts though, since why then would he be working in a restaurant? Despite the snobbish and arrogant attitude he put on most of the time, he did his job well and got along relatively well with the rest of the crew of waiters. Most of the time. Or maybe some of the time, to be more accurate.

Haruo Maeda on the other hand was a pleasant person to be around. He was a chatty person who was always happy, making jokes and desperately trying to get a girl. All his attempts at this were normally comical and something that people talked about behind his back but he didn't mind. Although Ichigo didn't quite understand why. The eighteen year old Haruo was well-built and not too short, and with his black hair and thoughtful brown eyes, you'd think he would have some more success. He was studying culinary arts at the university and he was also the only person whom Manabu allowed to come near the cooker, sometimes even helping out when the restaurant was particularily busy. Always grinning and greeting everyone he made the work place a happier one, and was greatly valued for it. Especially when Manabu was in one of his moods again since then he would completely ignore it and annoy Manabu with his awful jokes until Manabu got mad enough to start cooking again.

Then of course there was him, the only other male waiter at the restaurant. He was the quietest out of all of them and also the newest to life in this part of Karakura. He had quickly realised that living in the centre of Karakura was a lot different compared to the outskirts. It had a bustling night life and there was always something going on. He was also the tallest out of all of them and his orange hair had quickly earned him the nickname of 'carrot' from Ari, who let nothing stop her at insulting her co-workers in a friendly manner. Also strange was how the women here, most of whom had never seen him before or knew of his reputation back at high school, reacted to him. They liked him a lot, something that perplexed him, infuriated Haruo in a comical manner and Kaito in a serious one. The others just grinned and laughed, never bothering to try and explain to him that with his silent and mysterious manner, exotic looks and handsome build that he simply attracted the women.

That did not apply to the two waitresses of the restaurant though. Sakurako Yukari Ikeda, also known as 'Kura' or 'Yuka' to her co-workers, was a tall, beautiful woman, with long flowing black hair and exotic lilac eyes. She was always smiling and kind to everyone, which meant that nobody ever even got slightly disgruntled with her. She was soft-spoken and relatively shy but as Ichigo soon noticed, when she was around Ari or Haruo she had a killer sense of humour and a twinkle to her eyes that was normally not there when she spoke with the customers. Used to people trying to make a move on her she completely ignored the guys who attempted it in the restaurant but was always the first to lecture Kaito if he attempted it on her or anyone else. She was seventeen and had been thrown out of her family home after her fiancé had abandoned her for another woman, so now she lived above the restaurant, working there all the time. Ichigo knew that she and Ari were close friends, Ari having been the one to get her the job and appartment, and she was also the only one who was able to deal with Ari when she got in a real bad mood.

That left Aurora Jaegerjaquez, whom everbody just called Ari. She had inherited a lot from her parents after they had died in a car crash and had been working at the restaurant for three years, ever since she'd been sixteen. She was a petite, brown-haired woman, with elvin features, delicate and porcelain like. Her hair had natural golden streaks and her eyes were a vivid turquoise, illuminating her whole face. But he didn't let her features fool him, she was a fiesty bundle of energy and was always ready to insult someone in a friendly manner or heavily debate a topic. She studied medicine at the university and was one year ahead of him, constantly taunting him about upcoming tests and trials. He knew she had a twin brother but had never seen or met him and he had to admit, when he'd heard her surname for the first time, he's immediately thought of Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, Espada number six.

And then of course there were the devils who sat above them, he thought as he started to carry another box of wine inside. The two bosses who sat above them and which nobody could really stand. Against them they stood united, despite their many differences. First of all there was the manager, Eiji Ine, a tall man who was constantly shouting his head off at someone. Be it Joe, Manabu, the waiters or some delivery service people. He was always going on and on about rules and regulations and did as if he knew everything there was to know. Pfft, he was only twenty-eight, ten years older than him, nobody that old could be as world-weary as he pretended to be. He had blond locks, of which they were all sure were dyed and he had sharp black eyes, which constantly looked angry. However on one topic he was united with them as well and that was Hideki Kobayashi.

Hideki was the rude, arrogant fifteen year old son of Harumi Kobayashi, the current owner of the Kobayashi restaurant and mother to Hideki. She was a single mother, with Hideki as the oldest son and Nana as his younger sister. She was not as unkind as her son, yet still arrogant, having grown up as the rich daughter of the former restaurant owner, her father, Katsuo Kobayashi. Hideki did everything he could to make their lives difficult and was a pretentious git, in Ichigo's opinion, arrogant in thinking that he could do everything he wanted to when his mother wasn't around.

Looking up he saw Nana run towards Ari, jumping around her legs, trying to show her the picture she had drawn while Ari tried to transport the baskets of fresh bread inside. Nana was a sweet seven year old girl, who looked exactly like her mother, long light brown hair and dark green eyes. Hideki had the same features, but while Nana looked cute and sweet and innocent, he just looked bored and irritated.

"Look, look, Ichigo!" She called to him while holding up a picture. "Look what I drew!"

"Umm, Nana, what's that supposed to be?" Ichigo asked, unsure of what the big brown blob chasing the smaller red blob were.

"It's a dog!" Nana grinned up at him as he picked her up to get her out of the way of Haruo, who was pushing in the cartons and boxes on a wagon. "Chasing Hide's head!" At that Ichigo looked down at Nana in shock.

"Um... that red ball... is Hideki's head?" He wasn't sure whether to laugh or not. The little girl couldn't stand her brother any more than they could.

She nodded, looking super wise. "Mhmm, I want to draw on some eyes and a mouth now, can you let me down Ichigo?"

"Of course Nana." Ichigo smiled after Nana, she was sweet in a way that reminded him of Yuzu, yet also clever in a near diabolical manner that reminded him more of Karin. He grinned. When she was old enough, he was sure she'd cause plenty of trouble for her brother. He liked that thought a lot.

As he came over to the counter Kura briefly stopped her lecture of Kaito and looked towards Ichigo. "Hey Ichigo, your friends are on table four, they wanted to talk to you." She smiled briefly at him before turning back to Kaito. Ichigo nodded in thanks and smiled to himself. Nobody would guess the amount of backbone Kura possessed. Taking out his ordering device he made his way towards table four.

~.~.~.~.~

Uryu heaved a sigh of relief as he saw Ichigo come over towards their table. He had been about to start talking about what was bothering him but now that Ichigo had finally made it towards them, he decided to wait a bit longer. As Ichigo started to take their long list of orders he started.

"As you all know, Ichigo's powers have started to return..." he pushed his glasses up his nose and sighed in annoyance at the surprised faces of all of their friends. Seriously, they needed to start to get better at picking up spiritual levels, because this was just plain insane. "Okay then, let me rephrase myself, as you all obviously don't know, Ichigo's powers have started to come back."

Tatsuki turned towards Ichigo. "Hey, don't look at me like that Tatsuki, I only found out from Uryu this morning too." He muttered, annoyance at himself written across his face.

"Well, now that everyone knows that, we can proceed." Uryu coughed slightly. "Since they are returning and since Ichigo has always been crap at hiding his spiritual pressure..." Ichigo glared at him. "We must be on an even better guard, since his rising spiritual pressure will surely attract even more hollows than usual."

They all nodded. Orihime spoke up. "Oh yeah and Ichigo?"

"Hmm?" Ichigo looked up from the long order list.

"Please could you bring some wasabi and chilli paste with mine?" Orihime smiled brilliantly at Ichigo, making Uryu feel a slight stab of jealousy.

Ichigo appeared slightly pale at the thought of the strange combination she was probably going to make. "Sure, I'll do that Orihime." He nodded.

"And tell Chef Ogawa that I am grateful that he always has what I like to eat." Orihime added as well, probably sensing that this strange combination of hers was going to annoy Manabu to no end. She was probably right.

Ichigo nodded again. "No problem."

"What else Uryu?" Chad asked, breaking his personal silence. It always amazed Uryu how easily Chad could see that there was more than met the eye.

"Well..." Uryu began, not sure how to put it.

"Come on Uryu, make it quick, you're not the only customers." Ichigo said, making it sound as if he was talking about an order while some tittering girls walked past.

Uryu simply glared. "Something's upset the balance of spiritual energy between the worlds." He said, catching everyone's attention immediately. "I've already contacted Urahara, but he says that he doesn't know exactly what's going on." Everyone wore a worried expression on their faces. If Kisuke Urahara didn't know something, then it was something extremely serious.

Lost in thought, they didn't notice the compressed, yet familiar spiritual pressure coming up behind Ichigo.

"Well, I can tell you personally that Urahara is working hard to figure out what it is." A familiar voice said behind Ichigo.

They all stared in shock as Ichigo spun around and exclaimed in surprise, "Rukia!"

"Sensing spiritual pressure is still a weakness then, Baka." She grinned up at him, surprised that he had grown even more.

~.~.~.~.~

Rukia smiled as she, Toushiro and Rangiku drove into the center of Karakura in a taxi. Surprisingly, they had all fit into that strange machine of Kisuke's, the inside of it turning out to be built like miniature cabins, one per person, so all of them had been at relative peace while getting their Gigais.

Kisuke had told them afterwards, after they had all finished, of how things currently stood in the World of the Living. Of how the others had all moved to the centre of Karakura to go to Karakura University, even Keigo and Mizuiro. How Uryu had called that morning telling him of Ichigo's slowly returning powers and of how he had asked about the disturbance in the balances. The fact that Ichigo's powers were starting to return surprised no one that much. After all, when else should Ichigo's powers return than at the time that Aizen escaped from prison. Fate had its way of making things really difficult.

He had also told them of what all the teens were studying, medicine for Uryu and Ichigo, music for Chad, politics for Keigo and psychology for Mizuiro. How Tatsuki was studying civil defense and martial arts, something that had made Shuhei flinch, and how Orihime was taking cookery and culinary arts, something that made them wonder how she had gotten into that and even more importantly, stayed in. They all remembered how Orihime cooked, and Rangiku was the only one who found that particular type of cooking tasty.

He told them of where the friends lived, in a tall appartment building, which still coincidently had many flats free and how Ichigo had only recently lost his room mate. They decided then and there that while they were stuck in the World of the Living and limited to their Gigais, that they would move into that appartment building. One reason so that they could be close to the group of friends due to their mission but also because they couldn't think of anywhere else to stay for the time being, especially considering how many of them there were.

And then Kisuke made a suggestion that was sure to get him killed at some point. He suggested that Rukia stay in Ichigo's appartment, now possible due to the vacancy since she had already stayed with him once before and since Ichigo had once had a portion of Rukia's powers, so the possiblility of her powers triggering his to grow again were higher than anybody else's. Rukia had a nagging suspicion though that he and Isshin were probably plotting something for Ichigo and her, Isshin's 'third' daughter. She frowned at the thought, slightly annoyed.

Everyone had agreed, except for her brother and Renji. Her brother for obvious reasons and Renji probably because he didn't want to get killed by her brother at a later date for supporting that idea.

Kisuke had also suggested that they enter the university on courses, so that it wouldn't look strange and they had all agreed. So now they all took courses in university except for Toushiro and Yachiru, both of them obviously appearing too young to enter university. And so Toushiro was entered into middle school, causing him to be extremely annoyed while Yachiru was entered into the closest elementary school, causing her to become extremely excited and jump up and down with joy.

Somehow they were still able to access their financial accounts though and thus spent the rest of the afternoon renting the appartments, and also getting the right pieces of equipment and furniture. And by the time they were finished with all that it was seven thirty at night and most of them retired to bed, tired from the exertions of the day.

Rukia however had wanted to go and meet Ichigo and the others and so Toushiro and Rangiku had agreed to come along with her, Rangiku fearing that if they did not, Byakuya would and a meeting between him and Ichigo was sure to end in some sort of disaster. And thus they found themselves squashed in a taxi, driving to the restaurant that Ichigo worked at and at which the others normally met, either while Ichigo was working or not.

Arriving at the restaurant they saw that it was bustling with activity, the current holidays giving all the students a chance to relax and go out in the evenings. Not seeing Ichigo instantly she asked a tall dark-haired waitress who appeared to be scolding another waiter on some subject or the other on where Ichigo was.

Smiling down at her, Rukia had been startled to see light lilac eyes looking back into her violet black ones, and the woman had replied that he was just around the corner, taking the order off of a table. Smiling in appreciation Rukia, Toushiro and Rangiku made their way around the corner, their progress slowed down by the ongoing bustle around them.

Spying Ichigo's orange hair she grinned, he still stood out like a beacon. Coming up behind him she was pleased to see her other friends around the table, obviously deep in discussion.

Hearing their voices she noticed that they were talking about the strange phenomenon that had left them stranded there and decided to make her prescence known.

"Well, I can tell you personally that Urahara is working hard to figure out what it is." She said, feeling highly amused that they were so caught up by their discussion that they had failed to notice the arrival of her, Toushiro and Rangiku.

As Ichigo turned around in obvious surprise and shock she saw that same shock and surprise mirrored in her friends' faces. Looking up at him, she herself was surprised that he had obviously grown again.

"Rukia!" He exclaimed, surprise written all over his face too.

* * *

><p><em>AN: Wow, that chapter became longer and longer as I wrote, hopefully there's not too much in it.__ =P  
>Thanks a bunch to<strong> metsfan101<strong> for their review. I'm glad that you enjoyed the chapter! =) Also thanks again to **splitheart1120**! True, if Byakuya only knew... =D  
><em>


	10. Appearances

_Forever and Always_

_Chapter 10 - Appearances_

Ari muttered to herself darkly as she glanced towards the door of the restaurant. Grimmjow and Nel had said that they would come here at around eight o'clock, but until now there had been no sign of her nitwit of a twin brother and her usually so reliable friend. They were probably still getting used to the effects of the transition, the first time one changed their appearance due to the machine one normally took a bit longer to adjust to those changes. She of course had grown used to it, having used it for the past twenty-five years.

She was still surprised each time she looked into a mirror though. Twenty-five years of using the machine she had invented and she still hadn't gotten used to seeing her old self, her former self again. It was as though the wheel of time had been reversed, and after all the events of the past centuries, all of the events she had spent with silver hair instead of brown, made it hard to believe that this small part of her was still present.

Nel and Grimmjow had looked more than simply shocked when she and Nel had stepped out of the machine. Admittedly, seeing the beautiful caramel-blond locks of Nel again had been a simple joy, filling her with happiness that it was still possible to appear the way they had before. Gone had been the scar and the visible traces of time, Nel had been Nelliel from back then again. For a brief moment, they had all been able to believe that they were _human_ again.

She knew already what Grimmjow would look like. He was her twin, so his appearance was etched into her mind for eternity. She hadn't stuck around to see him change, she had had to go to work. But still she knew. She knew that that light-blue hair of his would have ceased to be and that the spikes would be the tell-tale chestnut of their family. All the scars from before would be gone, gone would be the mask that had graced his jaw for the past sixty years. Panthera, his zanpakuto, would be gone, not hanging by his side anymore. He would simply be her annoying older twin brother, not a powerful Arrancar, not Espada number six.

Moving towards table number eight, her interest was piqued when she saw a petite woman stand in front of Ichigo talking to him, his face showing pure surprise and shock. She shook her head slightly to herself before taking the orders of the table in front of her. When she had met Ichigo Kurosaki, she had been surprised at the high amount of spiritual pressure he had, she knew that he had never truly lost his powers, they had simply been hidden away since the soul naturally does so as a precaution, as a way of protecting themselves from being over-used. Over the past three months she had watched him carefully and after hearing Grimmjow and Nel's story of what had occured in the Soul Society as well as Hueco Mundo and the World of the Living, she was further surprised at the fact that so many of the Gotei 13 were friends with Ichigo, although some of them had expressed severe doubts.

She had also watched his friends and had soon analysed their various abilities, strengths and weaknesses. She had made it her business to know what was going on around her but to also stay completely aloof from all situations. After her past experiences, she was increasingly unwilling to become involved in any kind of happenings again. She seriously doubted that it would stay like that forever though.

Kura and Haruo had spiritual awareness, she knew that much, they were able to fully see hollows, ghosts and soul reapers. They pretended not to though. Joe on the other hand was able to see them, but not completely, and he was also unable to converse with them, Kura and Haruo could. All others were completely unaware, although she had her doubts about Nana, the small girl often knew more than she was supposed to.

Other than Ichigo, his friends and her three colleagues, no one else in the restaurant or this area, including the university had a spiritual level high enough to interest larger hollows. Some students at the university did have somewhat higher levels than others, but none were especially aware to the supernatural. One person she had been worried about though had been Arashi Hasegawa, Ichigo's former room-mate. She had been getting strange vibes off of him, something that had made her increasingly uncomfortable.

Smiling pleasantly at the customers of table eight, she started to make her way to the kitchen, the food for table ten just having finished. Looking over curiously at table four again she chuckled as she saw Ichigo stuttering something out while the tiny figure infront of him looked like she was about to kick him.

"Hey, Ichigo!" She called over. He did have a job to do after all. "No slacking or else the Ine's gonna kill you!" He looked like he was muttering something darkly, probably cursing her all the way to hell and back. She grinned at that. Annoying Ichigo wasn't something that was especially difficult and as a bonus, it was a lot of fun as well. Well, for her it was. For him, probably not so much.

He excused himself from the people infront of him and made his way over to her.

"Thanks a lot." He muttered to her, the sarcasm lying heavy in his voice.

"Your welcome." She smiled sweetly. "A pleasure as always."

He glared at her darkly and she couldn't help but laugh, earning herself a few envious glares from the table of cheerleaders along the way. Her fifteen minute break was in five minutes, so she hoped Grimmjow and Nel would be here soon, otherwise she might just have to kill them.

It seemed as if Nel and Grimmjow had heard her silent death threat because they turned up a couple of minutes later and immediately went to the table she had booked for them earlier on in the day. Looking around the room Grimmjow immediately grimaced and she sighed to herself. Hopefully he wasn't going to be complaining the whole time. She had to blink twice though when she saw the two of them. Looking at them now, nobody would ever believe that they were the former third and sixth espada. She felt incredibly pleased that her machine had worked so well.

"Grimmjow! Nel!" She called over, waving to them and indicating that she would come over in just a minute.

~.~.~.~.~

Ichigo muttered darkly to himself. He had just been about to talk to Rukia when Ari had called to him to do his job. That was annoying him to no end since at the moment Rukia was sitting at table four quite happily and talking to all of his friends, along with Toushiro and Rangiku, as if she didn't have a care in the world. As if they hadn't just not seen each other for two whole years. At least, he hadn't seen her since his powers had dissappeared and she was obviously in a Gigai.

Next to him Ari called over to two people who had just sat down. At the sound of her voice calling "Grimmjow! Nel!" he nearly dropped the plates he was carrying. And by the sound of it, Uryu was choking on a piece of bread behind him. Turning quickly to the table that Ari had called out to, he expected to see the third and sixth Espada sitting at the table, not the two people he saw instead.

The man was obviously the twin brother she had told him about. He hadn't ever asked for the name of her twin brother and he shouldn't be so surprised at the man's appearance. After all, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, the sixth Espada, was probably not the only existing Grimmjow out there. And the same went for Nel, anybody could have named their child Nelliel.

The man had spiky chestnut hair, the same kind that his sister also exhibited. His eyes were a startling light blue, lighter than the eyes of the Grimmjow he remembered, and they also held a playful spark in them, compared to the aggressive look the other Grimmjow had always worn. Also this one was obviously no Espada, no hollow hole was visible and he also didn't wear the broken mask that the Arrancar had possessed. He also looked slightly younger, about a year older than himself, Ichigo guessed, and that would fit, since Ari was a year older than him. A point she very well liked to drive home.

The Nel at the table was the friend then. The friend who had moved down along with the twin brother to get transferred from their university to the one in Karakura. Ari had told him about it this morning, while jumping up and down with an obvious joy that they were finally there.

This Nel still possessed the playful and happy bright green eyes of the Arrancar Nel, but her hair couldn't have been any different. Where he had expected a bright green to stick out across the room, there was a soft caramel-blond, tied up in some sort of plait. There was also no scar across her face, nor the pink facial markings, or the broken hollow mask on her head. Overall the two of them looked like two normal people and if he had seen them in the street, he wouldn't have guessed that he'd ever even associate them with the former enemy and ally.

Shaking his head to get rid of unwanted illusions, he quickly made his way towards the kitchen. He had just seen Hideki enter the building and he definitely wanted to avoid that brat at all costs.

~.~.~.~.~

Grimmjow carefully followed Ichigo from the corner of his eyes as he walked towards the kitchen and felt happy when he saw his sister coming towards them, having taken off her apron so that she could enjoy her brief break with them in peace.

Suddenly he got a slight smack on the head. "Ow!" he exclaimed glaring at Nel.

"Stop staring you idiot! He seems to think that we're not who he thinks we are. You don't need to make him doubt it!" Nel glared right back at him.

"Pfft. I doubt even Aizen would recognise us now." Grimmjow muttered quietly, and mainly to himself.

"Yeah." Nel agreed softly. "And it seems that that Quincy, oh yeah, Ishida, if I remember correctly, has stopped choking on his bread." She looked towards the table at which Ichigo's friends sat fleetingly, not wanting them to notice.

"So you finally made it!" Ari exclaimed happily as she reached the table, all irritation at their previous delay gone.

"Yeah," Nel grinned at Ari as she proceeded to sit down. "But this idiot here next to me took forever to get ready. Seriously, and he complains that we girls take long." She chuckled slightly as Grimmjow's expression inadvertedly darkened.

"Oh pfft, quit your complaining." He muttered. "At least I didn't take forever when choosing what to wear."

Nel grimaced. "I'm a girl, as you so often like to point out, and that gives me the privelege of being able to use more time in such matters."

Ari watched the following ping-pong of minor insults in amusement, she still wasn't sure how those two had survived the past two years in Hueco Mundo without killing each other. It was a true miracle.

Grimmjow sighed next to her, his thoughts obviously going somewhere else. "I'm just glad in a way that Ichigo didn't recognise us." He said, voicing all of their unsaid thoughts.

Nel nodded. "Yeah, for a moment there I actually believed that either him or the others would jump up and slice our heads off." Grimmjow muttered in agreement.

Ari shot a look at her brother. "Don't even try and pretend that you wished he would have. In his current state and level of spiritual energy that would have been disasterous." She glared at Grimmjow as he grinned back at her, making her fear that he had actually wished for Ichigo to recognise him. "And on top of that incredibly messy. You know how much memory modifying would have had to be done by both sides?" It was a rhetorical question and Nel dug Grimmjow in the side with her elbow, wanting to avoid any possible strife between the two.

~.~.~.~.~

Ichigo sighed happily. It may be two thirty at night but overall the evening had been a good one. The restaurant had been as full as ever, keeping him and the others more than occupied. And although he hadn't been able to talk to Rukia, Toushiro or Rangiku yet, he was sure that the possibility would arise tomorrow.

Ari had left ten minutes ago along with Kaito, both living in the same region three blocks away and having decided to take a taxi together, sharing the costs. Haruo, Manabu and Joe had finished cleaning the kitchen and bar, all three proud of their accomplishments that night. Kura was still hovering around, arranging the last tables and chairs, getting ready herself to go to her appartment above the restaurant soon.

Putting away his uniform, he was glad to see Hideki dissappear around a corner. Despite causing a minor uproar in the kitchen with Manabu and Eiji earlier on after he had gotten back from his party, he had mainly kept away from the restaurant that night, making them all thank fate for once.

Waving good-bye to Kura and Joe, he left the restaurant to walk home, his appartment being only half a block away. As always, the still ongoing nightlife surprised him, all he could think about was his comfortable and soft bed back home, calling for him to hurry up and get into it. How people could still be out partying perplexed him, but he simply shook his head to himself, way too tired to bother his brain with any more problems.

Turning the final corner before his appartment block he looked up to see the large building looming above him. The building was tall, having a total of fifty floors. On each floor there were eight appartments, apart from the lower three floors and the upper five. The ground floor had the reception of course and the administrative office of the building, along with a tiny coffee shop. On the first floor there was the pool, the sauna and the gym, available to people who didn't live there as well through a membership and available to the residents primarily so that they didn't have to travel to the quite expensive health and fitness centre four blocks away. On top of that, the first floor also had offices which had been rented by some company. And on the second floor there was a printer's shop along with some more offices. Offices which belonged to some foreign company that he hadn't heard of before.

And on the top five floors there were the more expensive appartments, being two to three times as large as the normal ones, and therefore having only three or four per floor. The building itself was quite modern and sleek-looking, giving a good impression to the outside. What was the most important about it though was its situation. It was a comfortable fifteen minute walk away from both the restaurant and the university and had the added bonus of having the Karakura Central Library, also known as the KCL, close by, making it extremely practical for university students like him. For those who possessed a car, it also had an underground garage of five floors, having at least one parking lot per person.

He nodded to the night-guard, Yoshinori Hashimoto, as he entered the building, before making his way to the elevators. While Uryu lived on the fifth floor, quite far down, Orihime and Chad were both on the twelfth floor, Tatsuki on the twentieth floor, Mizuiro on the twenty-first and Keigo on the twenty-seventh. He was the furthest up out of all of them, on the thirty-fifth floor and while he would normally walk fifteen floors up at least, he was too tired at this time at night and simply chose to take the elevators up to his floor.

Arriving on his floor, he walked tiredly towards appartment 3507, his appartment and turned the key in the lock. It had been the appartment he had shared with Arashi before and when he entered the appartment, he was surprised to see Rukia sitting on his couch, watching a re-run of one of the Chappy episodes. Sadly the animated series hadn't stopped over the past two years, so Ichigo felt that Rukia would probably be spending a lot of time catching up on them.

"Oi, midget." He called over to her, and she responded by throwing a cushion at him, one he was barely able to dodge. "Why the hell are you in my appartment?" He put his jacket away, it had grown quite cold at night, making it a necessity.

"Quite simple." She said, not taking her eyes off the screen. "I'm your new room-mate."

Ichigo stared at her, quite sure that his fatigue had made him hear something she hadn't actually said.

* * *

><p><em>AN:__ First of all I'd like to thank **hitsugayatoushirou1220** for their review, it's highly appreciated. =) I'd also like to thank **splitheart1120** for their review yet again and** HappyFestus** for their multiple reviews. Thanks a lot! =D_  
><em>And now the plot can start to unfold... =D<em>


	11. Nightmares Part 1

_Forever and Always_

_Chapter 11 - Nightmares Part 1_

_He was standing in the corridor again. The one that he'd been standing in for the past week. Again he saw with horror the Hollow coming towards him, coming in for the kill. And all he could do was stand there, compelled to stay still by some strange force while his limbs screamed at him to move, knowing what would happen next. He closed his eyes, he didn't want to see it. Not again._

_"Captain Ukitake!" He heard Kenpachi shout behind him, his eyes opened involuntarily, knowing that he would see her jump in front of him again. See that hollow rip out half of her organs with its claws._

_And he saw it. Unable to move, he saw her kill the hollow in front of him with surprising clarity. Saw the hollow dissappear in a flash of smoke, slowly being blown away by the wind._

_He was kneeling down beside her again, praying for her not to die, his own injuries making it impossible to move. To get her to a doctor, a healer, anyone that could help her._

_He heard her promise again, her promise that she'd be back before dissolving infront of his eyes. Turning into glittering dust, sparkling like miniature diamonds in the scant sunlight._

_He collapsed like he always did, from the severity of his wounds, but this time he was falling, falling, falling. Falling down an endless black corridor, cherry blossoms swirling around him, dancing. Like his own Senbonsakura usually did._

_Suddenly he hit the bottom, floating onto it like a cherry blossom himself, softly touching the ground. He got up, unsure of where he was, unsure of where he was supposed to be. _

_He turned his head slightly, hearing a soft whisper nearby. And then to his left side. And then to his right side. And then on his left again. Then in front of him. The whispers taunted him, pulling at him, causing him to turn his head in the direction that they wished for him to turn._

_"Who's there?" He called out, wanting to know, needing to know._

_"Noone. Everyone." The whispers answered, suddenly clear. They went back to the indistinguishable hum soon after._

_"You should leave." They called. "Before _he_ comes."_

_"Who?" He called back, not sure whether he should run or not._

_"Go! Run!" They shouted, sounding more panicked now. He turned around and started to run._

_But why was he running? He shouldn't have to. He had his zanpakuto by his side. He felt for it but found it to be missing. Now the panic started to rise within him. Where was it? When had it vanished? Where had it gone?_

_Fear gripped him like an iron claw and he felt like he was running for his life. He saw the light, the light at the end of the corridor._

_"Byakuya!" Her voice called at the end of the corridor. He saw her standing in the opening. "Byakuya!" She called again._

_He felt the hollow before he saw it. He opened his mouth, shouting at her to run, but no sound came out. Pushing himself forward even harder than before, he felt himself get slower, and she appeared to be moving even further away._

_Just as the hollow descended on her to kill, his voice worked again. "Ari!" he screamed before seeing the claws descend upon her once more._

Byakuya woke up with a start, sweating heavily, feeling as if he had indeed been running down that corridor. His throat felt hoarse, as if he had been screaming out her name in his sleep. He thanked an unknown god that he didn't have a room-mate. It had been hard enough to hide the nightmares from his fellow companions as it was. Especially from Rukia.

Pulling his hand through his hair he got up and walked to the window. Opening it up, a strong breeze immediately swept through the room, cooling him down, and helping him to clear his mind. But that was only to be expected, considering he was on the forty-fifth floor

He sighed heavily. It had been long since the nightmares had been this bad, this intense. They had only been this bad in the immediate years following her death. Afterwards he had felt that he had been able to control them to a certain extent. Prevent them from getting this bad.

Having them gave him the feeling of having no control. Being absolutely useless and helpless as he watched her die again and again. He had never told anyone about them. Not even Hisanna. But he was sure that she had known. After all, if one starts to wander in the middle of the night to prevent themselves from sleeping, your partner was sure to notice that something was wrong.

After Hisanna's death they had been quite bad for a while but then he seemed to have gained control over them once more. He had never wanted Rukia to know the reason as to why he slept as badly as he did sometimes. He felt that he would present a certain vulnerability if he did and thus he had never told anyone.

Looking out across Karakura he muttered underneath his breath before making his way back to his bed. Coming to the World of the Living always intensified his nightmares, or made them reappear. Sometimes he was able to sleep completely at peace, happy and content with his peace of mind.

He hated the nightmares, more than he was ever want to admit to himself. And he hated the fact that he had them and was unable to stop them, making him feel just like back then, helpless to do anything but watch. Sliding back underneath the covers, he was seriously considering whether or not to simply take a sleeping draught so that he could sleep.

~.~.~.~.~

_Aizen stood in front of him again, starting to regenerate already, and already beginning to taunt him again. Suddenly the Bakudos that Kisuke had planted within Aizen activated and all he could do was watch, knowing what would happen next, fearing the upcoming outcome._

_He felt himself go black, felt himself passing out, falling into darkness. He felt like a mere spectator, watching the events go by. Watch his life simply move on. Sometimes he had felt as if they were watching, as if the Soul Society still cared about him, but all he could do was speculate. Wait. And hope._

_Again and again he saw himself imagining seeing them there, seeing them stand around him, greeting him once more. And then he saw Aizen again. Saw him stand there and taunt him. Taunt him that they had forgotten him. That they never had truly cared._

_And his inner hollow was always there as well, laughing at him, grinning maliciously. 'Now I can take over you' he'd say, 'Now you can't do anything against me.' And he never could._

_But this was just the routine nightmare, the one he had had for ages, he already knew what would happen next. But still it felt different, it felt as if something had changed. Was it because his powers were returning?_

_Suddenly he found himself in a black orb, surrounded by the images of the past two years. He glanced around in confusion. What was going on?_

_"So we meet again Ichigo Kurosaki." Turning around, he came face to face with Aizen, but he looked more, how could he describe it, tired?_

_"Why are you here? Where are we?" His voice sounded weak, not like himself._

_"Oh isn't that obvious?" Aizen grinned dangerously. "We're in a world that has no dimension, I created it myself. Isn't it practical?" He sounded amused, pleased with himself._

_"Cut the crap." he muttered. "Why am_ I_ here?" He said, looking Aizen directly into the eye._

_"You haven't figured it out yet?" Now Aizen was mocking him. "I'm showing you how you should wish your life had stayed the same. You wouldn't be able to see the suffering I'm going to inflict on you and your petty friends."_

_"Ichigo." Suddenly the scenery changed and he found himself in his inner world._

_"So you finally show yourself around here again. You've left me alone for quite a long time." he spun around and was presented with the view of his inner hollow._

_"How long do you think that you will stay king now?" His inner hollow grinned maliciously. "Do you seriously think that after all this time of leaving me here, stuck here, that I will let someone as useless as you remain the _king_?"_

_Ichigo just stared at him, praying that this was just a bad dream and that he would wake up. And soon. But it seemed he wouldn't be blessed with the waking up yet. The scenery reformed and he viewed Aizen and his subsequent capture again. And again. And again._

Kon looked at the sleeping form of Ichigo and shook his head softly. Ichigo might not like to admit it, but since the slow return of his powers the nightmares had gotten worse. He had tried to hide them from his family, not wanting them to worry about him. But that hadn't fooled Kon. His restless sleep had indicated that his dreams were anything but peaceful.

Maybe... No, Rukia would surely just throw him against the wall should he try and feign not being able to sleep next to the restless Ichigo and go to her. She'd probably step on him too. But that wouldn't matter, as long as he could be with his sweet Rukia once more...

Grinning to himself, knowing full well what Ichigo or the others would say, he made his way across the room to the door. But the sudden shout from Ichigo made him jump to unknown heights. Twirling around he ran back to the bed. He had to wake him before he made any more noise, no use in waking up half the building.

But no matter what he did, Ichigo seemed to be stuck in his nightmare, refusing to wake up. Or unable to do so. Deciding that nothing would help he jumped down from the bed and made his way to the door. After all, the least he could do was make sure that as little sound as possible left the room.

Just as he had reached the slightly ajar door, it was flung open, just as Ichigo started to mutter and shout anew. Flying against the wall, Kon muttered to himself. People could at least knock, people never knew if _he_ wasn't maybe standing on the other side of the door trying to open it. But _no_, people never respected things that looked like fluffy animals.

Rubbing his nose he saw Rukia stand next to Ichigo's bed, trying to wake him up.

"It's no use Rukia." He said as he got up and starting moving towards the bed again. "I've already tried. He's probably got one of the bad nightmares again."

"What?" Rukia swung around and he just about managed to not go flying across the room again. "He's got nightmares?"

"Yeah." Kon said as he got an end of her pyjamas and started to drag her towards the door. He may be a stuffed animal, but he was still a mod soul.

"What are you doing?" She asked him angrily, about to kick him away again.

"You can't wake him up when he's in one of those nightmares." He stated matter-of-factly. "All you can do is close the door, and wait for him to calm down. Oh yeah, and find a quiet place to sleep."

She looked at him incredulously. "Is that what you do?"

"Of course." He said as he closed the door behind himself. "Oh yeah, and don't tell him that he had a nightmare. Don't ask about it and especially don't tell him he woke you up."

"Why's that?" She asked him, trying to see his small form in the dark.

"Simple. He'll deny it all the way to Pluto and back." Ichigo hated the nightmares and had tried to get rid of them intensely, so far without success though. And Kon knew that he didn't want anyone knowing about them. Especially Rukia.

~.~.~.~.~

_They were running. He knew that much. He didn't know why they were running, who they were running from, or even with whom he was running. He just knew that he was running and that he had to run. Run for his life._

_Looking around himself, he took note of the landscape. The trees were a blur. So they were running fast. He didn't recognise the woods, or any of the trees and yet... they felt strangely familiar. The trees were tall and beautiful. There was no sunlight, at least none came through the thick canopy of the trees. The path they were running on wasn't wide. It was small and narrow._

_Suddenly he noticed the pain in his foot as he stepped on a rock. How had he not noticed the rocks before? He stumbled slightly but kept running. Still feeling the constant urge to go on. To push forward. And especially to not look back._

_He felt a slight pull from in front of him and looking into his hand he noticed the other hand for the first time. So that was the source of the constant pull from in front of him. He studied the hand, wanting to know what it looked like. Wanting to feel the warm reassurance that it transmitted to him.  
><em>

_It was small, nearly as small as his was. But it was warm, beautifully warm against what felt like icy wind. It was also delicate. It looked like the hands of someone who painted or played an instrument. Not like the hands of someone on the run._

_"Toushiro!" The voice from the person pulling him called. "Don't slow down, you know we can't."_

_He tried to make out the features of the person to whom that voice belonged. To whom the hand belonged. The voice sounded soprano, feminine. It sounded musical and strong, beautiful and peaceful. Yet when he looked at the face, he saw nothing but a blur. No size no colour, just a grey indistinguishable mass._

_He needed to know what was going on. Why were they running? Who were they running from?_

_He turned around, knowing he shouldn't. Knowing that he should concentrate on running. On looking forward. But he did it anyway. He had to know._

_He gave a sudden shout of fear as he turned around. The person behind them, no, the creature hunting them, was none other than the demon from the passageway._

"Captain! Captain!" Toushiro felt himself being shaken back and forth and he woke up with a start. The shaking stopped immediately and he looked up to see the face of his lieutenant staring at him in concern.

"Matsumoto, what are you doing?" He asked, feeling slightly irritable due to the strangeness of the dream.

"I was trying to wake you up. You were talking in your sleep." Rangiku looked down at him, worried.

He got up, feeling as if he hadn't slept at all. "Well?" He looked at her in question.

"What?" She looked back at him confused.

"Well what was I saying of course?" He snapped, still annoyed at the fact that she had had to wake him up.

She looked at him, worry written clear across her face. "You don't know?"

"Well if I knew I wouldn't be asking now, would I?" He glared at her.

"Um... well..." She stuttered, as if not wanting to repeat what he had said.

He switched on the bedside lamp. "Come on, spit it out." He said, trying to be a bit more friendly so that she might actually tell him.

"You were saying things like; 'Who are you?', 'Where am I?' and 'Go away.' and then you started shouting, as if something bad had happened." She looked slightly embarrassed.

He felt a slight blush creep across his cheeks and was glad for the scant light of the lamp.

"It was nothing really Matsumoto. You can go back to bed." He said, wanting to be alone with his thoughts, and also not wanting her to see that he was indeed slightly embarrassed at her having to wake him up.

"You sure that you're gonna be okay Captain?" Great, she looked worried again.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's probably just getting used to this Gigai of Urahara's." He said quickly, wanting her to go back to bed.

"Yeah. Probably..." She said, trailing off, the doubt clear in her eyes. "Good-night Captain." She walked towards the door of his bedroom, "But if you need anything I'm right next door, okay?" She turned around before leaving the room.

"Yes Matsumoto." He sighed, hoping that she would really leave him alone with his thoughts now. "Good-night."

She smiled at him encouragingly and then left the room. He flopped back down onto the bed and turned off the light, wondering what the strange dream was all about.

It was the first time that he had any dreams like this. He knew that he had no memories of the past. He only had memories from the point at which he had started to live with his grandma in the Rukongai, before that he had no memories at all.

And here they were, his first memories of his life before living in the Rukongai. It felt strange, strange that he still couldn't remember anything, strange that his memories felt locked away. He had always been envious of the other souls, all of them possessing memories, remembering their past lives and telling others about it. At least now he had clues, he thought as he smiled to himself in the dark. At least he now had clues to his past.

He had that voice, and he had the image and pressure of that hand. Suddenly he frowned, remembering the other part of his dream. That monster, somehow that creature held a clue to his past. He clue to what his identity was. He'd been on the run before, running from the creature which seemed to be the cause for their stranding in the World of the Living.

He turned on his side, beginning to meditate, wanting to find out more, wanting to know more. But it would be hours before he would fall asleep again and run through the forest anew.

* * *

><p><em>AN: I'd like to thank **Sky Dragon155** and **Moemoepl** for their reviews as well as **HappyFestus** and **splitheart1****120 **for their continued contribution. Thanks a lot guys, it's greatly appreciated! =)  
>This chapter is all about what goes on in some of the character's minds, what they're thinking about, what they're afraid of. More characters will feature in part two, but it would be too much if I put it all in one chapter. Anyway, Nightmares Part 2 will be out hopefully within the next day or so! =D<em>


	12. Nightmares Part 2

_Forever and Always_

_Chapter 12 - Nightmares Part 2_

Kenpachi Zaraki normally wasn't the sort of person whom you'd expect to stay up at night. And especially not go wandering by the side of a river at four in the morning. Most people would have been surprised then.

As was usually the case, Yachiru was with Kenpachi, but for once she was quiet, silent. Anybody seeing the sight would have thought it to be extremely strange. Especially the people from the Soul Society, who knew Yachiru to be a bubbly hyper girl which never stopped talking. But even she knew when something didn't feel right. And she, of all people in the Soul Society knew Kenpachi best, knew when she had to be quiet around him.

"What's the matter Kenny?" She queried, wanting to know what was going on, wanting to know why they were out here in the middle of the night and not sleeping.

"I can sense remainders of her spiritual pressure here." Kenpachi kept it short, trying to focus on the scant trail of spiritual pressure that apparently ended here.

"Who do you mean Kenny?" Yachiru looked up at him, her bright eyes wondering who he was talking about.

"The Captain." Yachiru looked surprised at that. There was only one person whom Kenpachi had ever respected enough to call them that. Apart from the Head Captain of course. He did call the other captains by what they preferred to have him call them, but that was rare in itself. He didn't talk to the other captains that much.

"She's still alive?" Yachiru looked around herself, expecting her former captain to suddenly jump out of the water.

"She is." Kenpachi grinned in the twisted way that only he was able to.

Yachiru smiled widely. "Well then we have to find her Kenny. Because that means that you and I can have fun!" She was grinning, absolutely happy that Kenpachi seemed to be looking forward to seeing their former captain again. And to be honest, she was looking forward to it herself.

~.~.~.~.~

_It was dark. She looked around herself, recognising the place, but only barely. It was just outside the Seretei, on the thin border between the place where the pure souls lived and the Rukongai. She'd had a hard day of training behind her. Secret training that was. According to her sensei she was still at a basic level. But she knew that she was far beyond that. And so she went out when she could, training in secret because she didn't want to take on the extra responsibilities that came when one got better._

_She sighed, it was going to be hard to get back into the Seretei though. At this time at night it was guarded even better than during the day and she couldn't afford to be caught. She'd never hear the end of it from her parents. And her sister as well. Her oh-so-perfect sister who did everything right and who tragically didn't possess enough spiritual pressure and power to learn the high level attacks._

_"Pfft, she does as if she knows it all." She muttered, annoyed that the imagine of her sister managed to get under her skin even out here, even at this time._

_She heard the soft rustling of the leaves behind her due to the light breeze and quickened her step. Somehow the wind felt wrong. Smelt wrong. Something felt black, bad, desolate and she didn't like the feeling she had. Not one bit at all._

_Her step kept getting faster and faster and soon she was running. Running from a feeling she couldn't determine. Running from something she couldn't see._

_Suddenly she stopped short, catching her breath as the air in front of her reeked of evil. Pressing her back against the wall she peeked around the corner, wanting to know what smelled so bad. What she saw next was something she'd try to forget up until the day she heard of a demon-like creature chasing people through the normally safe passage between the World of the Living and the Soul Society._

_Bent over, like an old man, was a creature so horrific that she caught her breath and only the act of pressing her hand against her mouth prevented her from screaming. The creature was large, larger than a normal man, larger than her father who was known to be one of the tallest. A cloak was thrown to the side, something that that thing had obviously been wearing to conceal itself from the normal eye since what it looked like was absolutely... disgusting._

_It was deformed and in the dim light of the moon she could just about see the slime dripping down from it. It had three pairs of arms, all of them holding down another person. A normal soul. She took a step back and stepped on a twig, making a loud crack in the silence of the night. The creature spun around, searching for the origin of the noise and she stayed silent, unmoving, knowing that the shadows of the wall made her invisible and that the day of training spent in the woods made her smell like the woods too._

_The creature turned back to the lifeless and limp body of the soul, apparently continuing to devour it. But in that brief moment when it had turned to face her she had seen it's eyes. Large and lifeless they looked like the pits of hell. Red burning deep within them, mesmerising a person to a degree that all they could do was stand there, rooted in fear._

_Knowing that the creature would eventually finish its... meal, she turned around and ran back, ran to another one of the gates leading into the Seretei, tears streaming down her face at the thought of the dead soul lying on the ground._

Yuroichi woke up with a start, shivering as she thought of those lifeless eyes and got up, knowing that sleep would be impossible. She had spent many months after witnessing that event lying in her bed each night, trying to stay awake so that she wouldn't see those eyes in her sleep.

And after a few years she had been able to start and forget. Been able to sleep more at peace again. Oh sure it had taken its time and a lot of meditating, but she had managed to vanquish those devouring eyes. Or so she had believed.

Yet when she had heard the others talk about that strange creature in the passageway something had been pulling at her at the back of her mind, trying to make her remember the gruesome event which had haunted her so. It had only been when she had started to fall asleep that it had started to come back to her. The silence of the night. The lifeless body. And of course, those unforgettable eyes.

Walking over to the bathroom she turned on the light and went in. Once inside she turned the water from the shower head as cold as she could and held her head underneath it, yelping slightly at the sudden temperature shock. Standing there, letting the cold water wash over her hair she felt her mind start to clear, her muscles began to relax. She hadn't noticed how tense she had become and was glad for the cooling prescence of the water.

Standing there, she felt as if the water were a stream, much like the stream near her former home in the Shihoin mansion. It felt as if all thoughts and feelings were being washed away by the water until only the calm prescence of it remained. After a couple of minutes she felt better, and decided to go back to her room again, hoping that maybe she would now fall into a deeper, more peaceful sleep.

Closing the water tap and putting back the shower head, she walked out of the bathroom, humming an old Shihoin anthem to herself, attempting to calm herself down some more. Turning off the lights she made her way down the corridor and stopped when she noticed light coming from Kisuke's room. Why would he still be up? When she had checked her clock before it had said that it was well past four in the morning, so shouldn't he be sleeping?

Frowning to herself she moved towards the door of Kisuke's room and slid it open.

~.~.~.~.~

Kisuke hadn't been sleeping well that night. For that matter, he'd hardly slept at all. The thing with this strange creature possibly causing a breach in the connection between the World of the Living and the Soul Society worried him. And not just that. From the description of all of them, it was a creature he hadn't even heard of before. It deeply disturbed him that something existed out there that he didn't know of and even more importantly that was as powerful as it appeared to be. Because if it was then Aizen could maybe have...

No, he shook his head back and forth, not wanting to believe that that creature might have possibly helped Aizen escape. That should be beyond even its capabilities. But thinking that it might be possible for something to block the passageway between the World of the Living and the Soul Society was incomprehensible in itself.

Maybe he should go back to bed and try and get some sleep, after all, thinking with a mind as tired as his wasn't going to be beneficial for any party involved. Especially for himself. Chuckling softly he got up and made his way over to the lamp his mind still buzzing with unanswered questions and thoughts that stung like wasps.

A noise behind him made him start and he swung around only to come face-to-face with Yuroichi. And she didn't look as if she'd gotten much sleep herself. Swallowing loudly he broke the silence and she laughed softly.

"You look like you've just seen a ghost Kisuke." She smiled as she proceeded to make herself comfortable on the mat on the floor.

"Well since you're wearing white I'd say that maybe I have." He grinned, his usual humour helping him to lose the uncomfortable feeling that had suddenly come over him. Despite what most people might think he did not get to see Yuroichi in her night clothes very often, despite them living underneath the same roof for about a hundred years now. She also normally didn't change from her cat to human form very often in front of him. Soi Fon might believe otherwise but the truth was quite different.

"Why are you up this late?" Yuroichi queried, knowing that he normally slept well at night.

"I could ask the same of you." He replied and blatantly ignored the glare that she gave him in return. "I was just thinking of the creature that the others told us about. It worries me that we don't know anything about it."

"You mean that it frustrated you that _you_ don't know anything about it." Yuroichi quipped back, knowing that her statement had probably hit right on the mark.

He scowled. "Nah nah, it's not that." He stared off into the distance. "It's just that it might very well be possible that this creature also helped Aizen escape." She looked at him worried. "It _is_ plausible." He said softly, knowing that both of them had been fearing that this might be exactly the case

"Kisuke." He looked up. There was something about Yuroichi's voice that made her sound vulnerable, and that was something that happened as good as never.

"What is it?" He didn't know if he really wanted to know.

"I think I've seen something like what they described." His eyes widened. "It's a long time back but I think I've seen something like it before." An involuntary shudder shook her.

"How can that be?" He knew he shouldn't be so curious but that was simply part of his nature.

"It was back when we were still living in the Seretei, before we even joined the thirteen court guard squads." Kisuke looked surprised. It had been _that_ far back?

"I was coming home from secret training..." She grinned at that, remembering how she and Kisuke had always gone off to the cave to train in secret. "And I was nearly at the gate. That was when I saw something like what they described..." She swallowed loudly, trailing off. She'd never actually told anyone before and it was surprisingly harder than she thought it would be.

"It was a monster. It looked absolutely horrible." Kisuke couldn't help but smirk despite the weight of the story. To hear something so girly from Yuroichi was a true exception. She scowled at him, knowing full well as to why he had that expression planted on his face.

Suddenly she turned serious again. "But that wasn't the worst part." She felt an uneasy feeling in her stomach and silently sent a prayer up so that the contents of her dinner would remain with her. "It was eating a soul. Just someone who lived in one of the areas outside. It was literally devouring it bit for bit. There was nothing I could do." She hung her head, ashamed at her own weakness.

She started as she saw Kisuke but his hand on her shoulder and suddenly the tears started rolling down her face before she could stop them. Kisuke pulled her in towards him as she silently cried into his shoulder, his thoughts in a real whirlwind now. At the top of this whirlwind was the current situation. It was so unlike him to comfort anyone, most of all Yuroichi. But the sudden vulnerablilty that she had presented had been so unusual and so unlike her that he had done something equally unusual in return.

And then of course there was the ever pressing problem of what that creature was that Yuroichi and the others had seen. Whether or not it had allied itself with Aizen. And why, in the name of all that was holy to them, it ate souls...

~.~.~.~.~

The night felt heavy as Orihime stared out across the city. It felt dark and ominous, weighing down on her, making her feel aas if she were suffocating from the mere weight of it. So much was going on at the moment. So many different problems were starting to present themselves to her.

One of them was the nightmare that returned every night. The nightmare of being in Hueco Mundo, of being trapped there while watching her friends seemingly die off one by one. The nightmare of conflicting feelings, of wanting to help them yet at the same time wanting to help the fourth Espada, Ulquiorra Cifer find his humanity again. She'd wanted to help them all by destroying the Hokyoku and in the end she'd been nothing but a burden to them yet again.

She still saw her stay there flash past her at least once every week, always climaxing to the point where Ulquiorra had reached out with his hand for hers and vanished into dust. His 'heart', he had proclaimed in his final moments, had been found thanks to her. Yet she didn't feel like it. She didn't feel like she had saved him. So she had done the unthinkable. Done the one thing she didn't regret yet knew that everyone would hate her for it if they found out.

And that was where the next problem came. Keeping her secret hidden from them all. It was incredibly difficult, she truly didn't know how she had kept it hidden from them so far. Especially if one considered her normally huge babbling talent. And as to why she was still hiding it she also didn't know. She guessed she was simply afraid of their reaction. Of what they would think of her after finding out.

She took a sip from her glass of water. Maybe she should simply take a tablet against her headache and get some sleep. After all they would be meeting with Rukia and the others properly tomorrow. And that thought made her incredibly happy, despite the chance of her headache increasing exponentially.

Smiling to herself she went to the kitchen, anticipating the next day with happiness coursing through her...

* * *

><p><em>AN: I am sorry that this chapter took so long to get posted but due to unforeseen circumstances as well as uploading problems, this chapter took longer to post than expected... =P  
><em>

_I would like to thank **HappyFestus **(I didn't know he sleeps either! =P =D), **Moemoepl**, **gundamzbd36**, **splitheart1120** (who knows... not that soon I think though...), **IchigoMoonCutter** and **EveryDei **(I just updated unusually fast... =P =D and the flaws make them so more interesting!) for their reviews on chapter 11 and **rockbabyval** for their review on chapter 1. Your support is greatly appreciated and inspires me to write more! =)_

_In the next chapter we'll be back to the normal happenings of their life... The meeting between Byakuya and Ichigo should be quite interesting... ;D_ _Hopefully I will be able to update sooner this time than last time though and please don't shoot me if I keep you hanging... =P =D_


	13. Meeting

_Forever and Always_

_Chapter 13 - Meeting_

Ichigo scratched the back of his head as he walked out of his bedroom. Yawning of course. After all who in their right mind got up this early in the morning? Oh yeah, him. Shaking his head in annoyance he walked towards the kitchen. Maybe he still had some food left. After all, he had only gone shopping two days ago.

When he reached the kitchen he was met with a distinct smell of something burning. Quickening his step he nearly ran into the kitchen. If Kon had so much as touched the grill or the food then that lion was going to find out that he was made out of the perfect material to be grilled. Alive.

Turning the corner he suddenly stopped. "Rukia?" he asked completely dazed. What the hell was she doing here? When had she arrived? He slapped his hand against his head. Of course, she'd arrived last night. Why hadn't he been able to remember? Probably due to that horrible nightmare that had revisited him again last night. Like it did nearly every night since a few weeks.

"Is something wrong Ichigo?" Rukia was looking at him surprisingly worried.

"No, nothing really. Just surprised to see you here midget." He said with a wide grin, knowing full well that the nickname would annoy her.

She scowled slightly. "How could you forget I was here?" She looked slightly annoyed now. "I arrived last night."

"Yeah I know that now. But you're still so small that I must have overlooked you." That response got him a kick in the shins. He grinned through his pain. Until now he hadn't realised how much he had actually missed her. Her cooking skills seemed to have deteriorated though since he had seen her last. The burned something on the plates being more than enough proof for it.

"Um, Rukia, I was just wondering... what is that?" He asked, pointing to the black thing lying on his plate. And he wasn't sure he wanted to know the answer. It looked even more dangerous than Orihime's cooking. And that was saying something.

"Scrambled eggs." Rukia had a way too innocent expression plastered on her face. He looked at the eggs dubiously. Maybe he should simply wait until he got to the restaurant. They were sure to have some good food there. Right? And Manabu shouldn't mind him eating just a little bit of the food. It couldn't be a crime not to want to eat that, right?

But he just couldn't resist commenting on the eggs. He just couldn't. It was ingrained in him ever since he'd met her that he had to comment on something or give off a sarcastic comment on what was happening. Even if it earned him a kick in the shins or worse.

"Are you sure? They look more like coal than scrambled eggs." He said with a smirk on his face. And as expected she kicked him in the shins. Hopefully he would still be able to walk and do his job later on. And he certainly didn't want to give Rukia the satisfaction of knowing that that last kick had seriously hurt. And on top of that if Ari found out and then met Rukia... He didn't want to think about it. All he knew was that it would end in a certain disaster. Especially in a disaster pertaining his legs.

He winced slightly at the horrifying thought of those two working together before turning back to Rukia. "I have a shift at the restaurant today at eleven. So I won't be able to meet anyone else yet." He apologised and once again prayed deeply that Manabu had some spare food he was willing to offer to him.

"Can't you just take the day off today?" She queried, caught off guard herself at the nature of the question. Normally she would be the first to remind anyone of doing their job properly and completing their duties.

He looked at her, surprised that she had said such a thing. However he chose not to comment on it and instead made the horrible mistake of looking at the clock. "Crap!" He exclaimed and ran out of the door, making every effort not to wince at the pain that shot up his leg. How on earth did she always manage to hit him where it hurt so much?

Rukia looked at the clock in wonder and then smirked. Ichigo had just said that he had a shift at eleven and on the clock it read ten to eleven. He was going to be late. Rukia grinned widely and didn't notice how Kon sighed quietly from his position on the table. Kon knew that her question had caught them both of guard and he didn't even want to think what would have happened if Ichigo had let off one of his usual comments and how she would have retaliated. It would have been something that could have been described bloody.

How hypocritical he thought. He was the one who should know the most that ticking Rukia off only ended in a lot of pain for the person who had ticked her off. And yet he still did it. He grinned and put on his usual demeanor as he jumped towards Rukia.

"Rukia nee-san!" He called out already imagining himself landing on her...

It was no surprise that he ended up on the floor instead with her foot planted firmly in his face.

"Rukia nee-san! You're back again!" He called while tears ran down his face. Rukia just grimaced at him while giving off a long tirade about how he hadn't changed at all.

~.~.~.~.~

Sprinting across the street Ichigo cursed softly to himself again. And barely managed to avoid getting hit by a mum pushing a pram. Jumping aside he apologised quickly and began to run towards the restaurant again, not even seeing the woman's stunned expression as she watched him fly around the corner.

"What a strange man..." She muttered and continued on her way, a lot more careful now, fearing that another person might suddenly dash across the road into her again. Karakura Centre sure was a busy place.

Grumbling Ichigo crashed through the back door of the restaurant. Ari took one look at his flustered face and simply said; "Apron here. Give me your stuff. Ine's gonna have your head if you don't get in there right now."

Ichigo briefly nodded his thanks to her, threw on his apron and pushed the swinging doors to reveal a crammed restaurant. Blinking for a few seconds he took in the scene, absolutely stunned at the large amounts of customers.

"You look like an owl in the daylight." Kura commented drily before pushing the doors aside, her arms full of platters of food.

"Why are there so many people?" Ichigo asked, wandering why so many people would be here at eleven in the morning. Eleven for heaven's sake. No sane person would be in a restaurant on a Sunday at eleven. It was Sunday after all.

"Apparently Hideki spread the word that some famous person had come here as a joke... I'm gonna kill him." Haruo looked royally annoyed. "Just for the fun of it. To see if the restaurant _staff_ could handle it." Haruo's normally joking voice held a dangerous sense of malice.

"I'm gonna stab him." Kaito looked around the restaurant murderously, searching for the offending face.

"Harumi called us all in about half an hour ago." Ari scratched the back of her head with the ordering machine. "Most of us were still sleeping or had just gotten up." She looked thoroughly pissed. "Just because her miserable excuse of a son wanted to have some fun or something to brag about."

Ichigo shook his head softly as he made his way to a table which had just become occupied. Grimacing inwardly to himself he noted that the group was Airi Takaki's group. Stifling a groan he forced a reasonably pleasant smile on his face and asked what they all wanted. Giggling in what he considered to be an extremely annoying fashion Airi batted her eyelashes.

"How about I would like to order you." She answered extremely flirtatiously.

"I'm sorry but we don't have anything on the menu called 'you'. Please order something else." God dammit he was hungry. Since silly behaviour of her's was just serving to provoke his ire.

And again she giggled. "Well then I would like some ramen." Leaning in dangerously close she smiled, "A special order. For all of us here."

Ichigo refused to back off. It simply wasn't his style. "Okay then, if that's all." 'Smile pleasantly' he whispered to himself internally, 'smile pleasantly'. Nodding he moved towards the next table. Ari passed him briefly.

"That was a close call carrot." She muttered. "Be careful of her. Once she sets her sights on something she normally doesn't stop until she gets it."

Grimacing he glanced down and she smiled briefly. "Don't worry. As long as it all happens in the restaurant she can't really throw herself at you like she wants to. It would be as if she were declaring war on at least three other tables." The mischievous spark in her eyes had returned.

"You're the dangerous one. You know that?" He couldn't help but mutter back.

Chuckling she moved on. "Table twelve is still hasn't been tended to. Haruo's in the kitchen helping Manabu so we're a bit over-loaded. Can you take care of it?" She called back at him.

"Of course, I'll head there now." He grinned again. Despite her attitude and often hidden insults Ari still had the kind of humor that was infectuous. One that always made you smile.

Arriving at table twelve he forced the 'customer-friendly' smile on his face once again.

"Hello, welcome at the Kobayashi restaurant. What would you like to..." He stared in shock at the person sitting down opposite him. "Byakuya?" He asked, feeling for the third time that day, to put it eloquently, like a dazed owl.

~.~.~.~.~

That morning Byakuya got up out of his bed his head feeling as if a thousand bees were flying through it. And stinging him. Badly. He rubbed his head tiredly. The sleeping draught hadn't helped last night like it usually did. All it had done was that it had prevented him from waking up. And therefore he had seen the murder of Ari until he had felt really sick.

Drat that they were trapped in the human world. If they weren't he would have gone back to the Soul Society by now to cure his headache. Sadly the human world was lacking the Kuchiki physicians.

Walking towards the kitchen he mumbled softly to himself. Shouldn't the nightmares have stopped by now? Shouldn't sixty-two years be enough to lessen the pain? To lessen the hurt that he felt each time he saw her portrait hanging in the Squad 11 barracks? 'Time heals all wounds' he thought as he poured himself a cup of tea. He had prayed for that to be true, but all he could see now was that time hadn't done anything to the wounds, nor the pain. All of it had remained unchanged in the past six decades, none of the feelings he felt were diminishing.

With a tired sigh he sat down on the exquisite sofa that stood in his living room. Taking another sip of the tea he looked around the room. The house wasn't what he would describe as something that suited his tastes but it was furnished quite well and displayed a certain degree of delicacy and nobility. The stores here hadn't had exactly what he had wished for but that was only to be expected.

Maybe if he went out he would be able to get his mind onto other thoughts. And they desperately had to find out what was wrong. He was sure that that strange creature back in the passage had been the reason for the problems that had arose afterwards. Maybe Ichigo Kurosaki and his friends would know more about this strange phenomenon. And anyway, he had to make sure that that orange-haired fool understood the consequences of having Rukia as his room-mate. He would have to make sure that Ichigo understood the gravity and responsibilities that came with that honour.

Having decided on what to do he got up and put the cup down on the counter next to the sink, heading towards his bedroom to get changed. Twenty minutes later he closed the house door behind him gently and walked towards the elevator. Or at least that was what Urahara had called it. Having never used it before the previous day, the concept of it was still a bit new, but that didn't matter. Pressing the button he waited patiently for it to arrive before stepping in and pressing the button for the ground floor.

The elevator stopped at the thirty-fifth floor though and the doors opened to reveal Rukia as she stepped into the elevator.

"Good morning ni-san." She smiled up at him. After the winter war they had gotten a bit closer as brother and sister and their relationship was definitely not as frosty or strained as before.

"Good morning Rukia." He nodded back at her, allowing himself a small smile.

A pleasant silence reigned over the interior of the elevator, both of them lost in their own thoughts. Byakuya was still thinking about how to get rid of his headache while Rukia was contemplating what gifts to buy for Yuzu and Karin whom she was going to visit in four hours. She had announced her arrival only to Ichigo and his friends, she was sure that the others hadn't been informed yet. Well at least she hoped they weren't. Unless Urahara had told Isshin and that in itself was perfectly plausible. The two men were quite good friends after all. Yet she still hoped that Yuzu and Karin wouldn't know. She truly wanted it to be a surprise.

Their peace and silence was interrupted though as the elevator let off a loud 'ding!' as it opened on the thirtieth floor. Renji stood there, happily humming to himself in some sort of discordant and jumbled tune. Either he didn't know the tune or he was tone deaf. Rukia knew it would probably be the former despite hoping that it would be the first.

Renji immediately stopped once he saw them though.

"Captain, Rukia." He nodded at both of them in surprise. He obviously hadn't expected either of them to be about on this day or possibly more at this time. Which was only to be expected since all of them had been exhausted in the previous evening and had retired to bed extremely early. And that meant that they should have slept longer. Of course, he didn't know that both of them had been deterred from sleeping by various dreams and happenings.

"So where are you two off to?" He asked after what seemed like an eternity of silence.

Rukia smiled. "I'm off to get some presents for Karin and Yuzu. I havn't seen them in two years and I would love to surprise them with a small gift."

Byakuya turned to her. "You know that you can use the credit card. right?"

She nodded. "Yeah I know. Thank you so much ni-san." She gave a short bow. "I think I even remember how to extract money from the account like Urahara and Yuroichi showed us yesterday." She seemed extremely proud of herself.

"That is good." Byakuya nodded to her and she smiled as the elevator doors opened to the ground floor.

"See you later, Renji! Ni-san!" She smiled as she waved back at them while Byakuya and Renji started to make their way towards the restaurant where Ichigo was working.

The previous day Urahara and Yuroichi had given them a 'crash-course' on how to live in the World of the Living, and to be perfectly honest, a lot of it still confused Byakuya. Renji had been here several times before, had even lived with Urahara and Yuroichi and thus knew much more about how the World of the Living functioned. But even he had been stumped at how banks and credit cards worked. And so Yuroichi and Urahara had helped them with exactly that.

In case the connection to their money from the Soul Society should be cut off, they had transferred about half their money to newly installed accounts here in the World of the Living. But even half the money had been enormous amounts for Byakuya. He just prayed that Rukia wouldn't buy too much, he wasn't sure how he would increase or even maintain the amounts if she bought too much Chappy stuff.

Crossing the street carefully they made their way through the crowds that were beginning to form. It was a Saturday morning, so most of the population had slept in, wanting to catch up on the sleep on which they had missed out during the week. Or they had just been out late the night before and were nursing hangovers.

"Are you going to see Ichigo as well Captain?" Renji asked tentavitely, not sure whether mentioning Ichigo's name would be a clever thing to do or not.

"Yes. I am going to see Ichigo Kurosaki, he and his friends might know something about this strange creature." Byakuya said quietly, his head still causing him a fair amount of pain. "And of course I have to remind him how to act around a noble."

Renji winced at that. Great, he thought, just what we need. Byakuya was probably going to try and lecture Ichigo on how to act now that Rukia was in his house as a roommate. Byakuya's sister complex confused even him and scared him a little too. That was after all what had kept quite a few men away from Rukia so far. The idea of having to battle with Byakuya's sister complex installed fear in most people's hearts. Apart from Ichigo that was. Ichigo probably didn't even understand it himself but that was only to be expected from him. He was one of the most oblivious people Renji knew and probably wouldn't even know that he was infuriating Byakuya even if someone was holding the fact into his face.

Renji sighed. He'd wanted to meet Ichigo for another reason but it was probably better that he was coming along. After all their job was to protect Ichigo, not kill him.

Rounding the last corner they saw the restaurant and both of them stopped short in their tracks. There was quite a crowd in front of the restaurant and Byakuya shook his head in disgust. People in this town would never cease to amaze him with their bizarre behaviour.

"Captain I don't think..." Renji began and then just stared in shock as his captain walked right through the crowd to the door. Blast it, even in this world Byakuya Kuchiki managed to exert an amount of elegance and power that stunned most people. Hurrying he managed to catch up to Byakuya, not wanting to fight through the crowd to reach the restaurant.

"Who's that...?" Renji heard some girls mutter to the left of him.

"He looks hot. Do you think he's new around here?" Another girl whispered.

Renji just shook his head. Hopefully none of them would have to learn the hard way that his captain was about as uninterested in girls as a rock was. It had always surprised him, that fact. The Women's Organisation in the Soul Society had named him the most handsome bachelors or one of the most handsome bachelors in the whole Soul Society. Byakuya even had a girl fan club. But he had never been interested. He had never found out why, but he was itching, and had been for a fair amount of time, to find out why.

Seeing one of the tables get free they made their way towards it. On the way they walked past a waitress and Byakuya suddenly turned his head around to look at her walk away towards the counter and shook his head as if to clear his head of some image. Slightly confused Renji followed him, unsure as to why Byakuya had suddenly acted like that. Looking over he saw the waitress pass Ichigo and talk to him briefly. He grinned, Ichigo still stood out like a beacon in the dark night.

Ichigo then began to walk over to them, his mind obviously miles away. When he reached their table he appeared to put a smile on his face before beginning to talk.

"Hello, welcome to the Kobayashi restaurant. What would you like to..." Ichigo then looked up into their faces. Renji smirked. "Byakuya?" Ichigo looked like a dazed owl. He turned to the side. "Renji?"

"Hey Ichigo." Renji couldn't help the grin that was spreading across his whole face.

"What are you guys doing here?" He exclaimed, trying to keep his voice down.

"I see that my sister hasn't informed you of our presence then?" Byakuya asked, a haughty brow rising slightly.

"Obviously not." Ichigo snapped, looking more than slightly annoyed. He was just about to start on another sentence when a shout interrupted him.

"Hey Ichigo!" Turning they all saw the petite waitress from before balancing several plates on her arms. "Will you hurry up! I know that we normally spend more time on the orders but we're seriously packed today!" The waitress was looking pretty annoyed.

"Sorry guys but as you can see it's really full today. I'll come over in my break which should be in thirty minutes. So, what do you want? Byakuya?" He turned towards Byakuya, still looking slightly disgruntled.

A vein was starting to work on Byakuya's forehead. "Just some tea and breakfast please." He ground out. Renji tried to hide a smile. Ichigo's lack of respect for Byakuya had always annoyed his captain to no end. Ichigo turned to him, the questoin from before still in his eyes.

"I'll take the same." Renji nodded, knowing that it wasn't wise to provoke either man. Both looked like they were about to erupt.

"Okay, I'll see you later then." Ichigo nodded before turning away, muttering something under his breath. Maybe it was just his imagination but Renji was sure he heard something along the lines of 'I'm gonna kill that midget.'. As always, Renji grinned, his stay in the World of the Living would be anything but boring.

* * *

><p><em> AN: And now we're back to the story after the previous two chapters of dreams. =D I'm truly sorry if the storyline is moving a bit slowly at the moment but as promised this chapter came out faster than the last. =P =D_

_ Thank you so much for all your support as always and please read and review! =)_


	14. Operation Avoidance commencing

_Forever and Always_

_Chapter 14 - Operation 'Avoidance' commencing_

"Okay, spit it out. Why the hell are you two here?" Ichigo ground out. He and Byakuya had never gotten along well and the fact that the Captain of Squad 6 was calmly sitting across from him, in the World of the Living no less, drinking his tea as if he didn't have a care in the world annoyed him beyond belief. In fact it was infuriating him. A lot.

"My sister hasn't informed you then." Renji wanted to smack his hand to his forehead. Did his captain always have to try and go on a confrontation course with Ichigo?

"I think we have already established that fact, thank you very much." Ichigo had to have had a bad night because even though he was normally irritable when it came to Byakuya, this was a long way beyond that. Although, if one looked at the way his captain was nursing his cup of tea, then one would also assume that he had had a sleepless night too. Renji shook his head. It was frightening how alike those two could be at times.

"We're here on a mission from the Soul Society." Renji said quickly. They were in a public place and he didn't want to be the one who would have to go around modifying everyone's memory if both men came to blows. Somehow he ended up in the position of the peace maker a lot lately.

"What mission?" Ichigo cocked his head to the side.

Obviously not in the mood to even try and be discreet Byakuya sipped his tea before saying; "Aizen has escaped." The reaction they got caught them off guard.

Ichigo blanched as he fell back into his chair. "It wasn't just a dream then?" He looked dazed.

"What do you mean?" Byakuya narrowed his eyes at him over the edge of his teacup.

As if in some kind of daze Ichigo turned to him, his eyes slightly glossed over, obviously remembering something unwelcome. "About two weeks ago I had this really strange dream. In it all you guys were meeting because Aizen had escaped."

"You had a dream about this?" Renji looked at Ichigo in surprise. Ichigo normally wasn't the one that was normally particularily spiritually aware. It had always been one of his biggest weaknesses. Rukia had often said that he leaked his spiritual energy like a tap.

"Yeah." Ichigo nodded but then seemed to revert back to his old brooding self. Renji heaved a sigh of relief, he hadn't liked seeing Ichigo appear vulnerable in any fashion, it just didn't fit the personality of the tall, orange-haired substitute soul reaper.

Seeing someone enter the shop he turned to the two of them. "There's also been something else that's bothering me." The other two men perked up. "Is there something like spiritual twins or something?" At their blank faces he tried to explain. "Renji, you remember Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez? The sixth espada?"

"How could I forget." Ichigo accepted Renji's darkening expression as the answer he had wanted. No one had been able to forget what had happened in Hueco Mundo. Neither noticed Byakuya's hand tighten as he heard the name. It was a name that he'd never thought he'd have to hear again. Obviously he had been wrong.

"Well the thing is, recently I met a man, or to be more accurate, saw a man here in the World of the Living who also went by that name. I know a relation of his, she works here at the restaurant. The thing is though that despite carrying exactly the same name, the guy looks and acts completely differently to the Grimmjow I met in Hueco Mundo. What's even more perplexing is that this Grimmjow has a similar spiritual signature as the sixth espada. I had Uryu check it out, since I obviously can't." Ichigo grimaced at that. He hated that his spiritual powers were gone, even more now that he knew that Aizen was out in the open again. "And he said that despite the two being similar, this man's was most definitely human. A bit above average but not so much that he could have developed any powers or even be trying to conceal existing ones. And that's why I'm asking. If there is a chance that the spiritual powers split up and created two copies or parts of itself. Because that could be potentially dangerous if a man like Aizen were to find them again."

"Interesting..." Byakuya murmed, taking another sip of his tea. Ichigo scowled, did that man have truly nothing else to say but 'interesting'?

"Nemu might know." Renji leaned forward to grab another piece of toast. As the whole of the Urahara shop would be able to confirm, Renji ate quite a fair amount of food to say the least.

"She's here too?" Ichigo snapped back to reality, having been lost in thought.

"Quite a few people are." Renji began. "Actually we were here to ask if you and the others could meet us and the rest of the group dispatched here to organise the whole thing at Urahara's. Something strange happened to us on our way here and we were wondering if you guys might know something."

Ichigo furrowed his brow. "What exactly..." But was interrupted when a tall, black-haired waitress arrived at their table. Her lilac eyes twinkled as she smiled and respectfully greeted both Byakuya and Renji. Renji blushed slightly and stuttered out an answer while Byakuya just nodded in return. Talk about being as cold as ice.

She then turned to Ichigo. "Ichigo, your break's over and Ine's gonna kill you soon if you don't hurry it up. Not to mention what..."

Ichigo stood up quickly. "Okay, okay I get it Kura, I'm coming." Turning back to the other two, he inclined his head in farewell. "I'll pass the message along. See you at Urahara's then." With a wave he turned around and nearly ran back to the staff door. Both of them watched him go.

"I guess we'll see him tonight then." Renji turned to his captain.

As usual, Byakuya just kept silent and nodded as he got up. Both of them put their money plus a small tip on the tray that Ichigo had left and turned to leave the shop themselves. By the time they reached the door Renji wished that they had been able to use the staff entrance to leave. Neither the women here, nor the women in the Soul Society seemed to understand that Byakuya Kuchiki had a frozen rock instead of a heart that only warmed up when Rukia was involved and his sister complex kicked in.

~.~.~.~.~

When Grimmjow and Nel left the shop, Grimmjow had turned around a last time to wave good-bye to Ari. They had come in to inform her that they would be going shopping for clothes. Nel had jumped up and down like a small child that couldn't wait for Christmas while Grimmjow had just worn a pained expression on his face. But after waving and while still turning around, Grimmjow had seen _him_. Byakuya Kuchiki. He was sure of it. And knowing that Ichigo and Rukia, Byakuya's relation of some kind, were close friends and seeing Ichigo at the same table only confirmed what he feared. Pulling Nel out behind him and onto the closest bench she had looked at him strangely.

"Grimmjow, are you alright?" Nel's eyes looked worried.

"This is a disaster Nel, an absolute disaster." Grimmjow hid his face in his hands.

"What is?" Her eyes were wide and innocent, like those of a young child.

"Didn't you see him?" Grimmjow turned to her, unable to believe that Nel hadn't noticed.

"Didn't see who?" She was starting to get annoyed at his cryptic manner.

"That man."

"Who?" Her expression was starting to get the annoyed frown she'd nearly constantly worn in the past when she had been dealing with him.

"Byakuya Kuchiki."

"Am I supposed to know him?" She cocked her head to the side, looking adorably like a sweet little puppy.

"Haven't you been listening to anything I've been telling you the past two years?" Grimmjow looked at her with an incredulous expression on his face.

"I have, but you talk a lot when the day is long." Grimmjow sighed. He should have expected that.

"We must not let him and nee-san meet. Do you remember that part at least?"

She shook her head. "Nope."

He resisted the urge to bang his head against the lamp post. He reconsidered it quickly though, it would only hurt.

"Why musn't we let them meet?" Grimmjow turned back to her.

"Because he's someone from the past. Someone who was important to her. Before I died in the Soul Society and got pulled into Hueco Mundo I remember them being partners. That was about a ninety years or so ago. When we were still with nii-san. I don't know what happened after that though." Grimmjow's expression darkened involuntarily. He hadn't expected to be caught in the onslaught of memories that were now flooding him. "I don't know when exactly nee-san passed away in the Soul Society but her spirit quickly manifested itself here after she left that world. Something must have happened though because since then she absolutely refuses to get involved in the fights or happenings that go on in any way or fashion."

"And you don't want her to meet this Byakuya Kuchiki because you think that it might open old wounds or the like." Grimmjow nodded at her inference. Despite her childish personality, Nel was uncommonly sharp. It was one of the things he loved about her.

"But how? If this Byakuya fellow spends even a portion of his time with Ichigo or even just sticks around for a while then they are bound to meet. And even if he doesn't recognise her due to her changed form, she will most definitely recognise him if he was important to her in the past. You know how much she clings to her memories." Nel looked at the sky expectantly, as if waiting for it to open up and reveal all the answers they needed to them.

"This means we have to start operation 'Avoidance'." Grimmjow stated grimly.

Nel couldn't help herself, she broke out in fits of laughter, her caramel locks dancing around face. "Operation 'Avoidance'?" She scoffed before beginning a new round of laughter.

"What's so wrong with that?" Grimmjow muttered in annoyance, looking slightly miffed. Nel felt incredible happiness stream through her, Grimmjow was himself again. In fact, all of them were. Being freed from Hueco Mundo and any other past obligations or ties, they had been able to come alive again in unexpected ways, their very beings becoming themselves again. They didn't need to pretend to be hollow, soul reaper or human. They could just be themselves. Sometimes it truly was a blessing to be reborn. Most of the time it was a curse though.

"Nothing." She snickered, still finding the name absolutely absurd.

"Hmpf." Grimmjow looked at her dubiously. "Let's go shopping first. After all we need to show nee-san what we got when she gets home tonight."

"Yeah, I doubt that she'll be able to escape before this evening." Nel's eyes twinkled as she remembered the pure chaos inside the restaurant.

"We can come up with a plan then." Grimmjow helped her up and both walked over to the curb, Grimmjow managing to successfully call over a taxi.

"Ryo?" Nel called him by his old nickname, the one he had possessed as a young boy.

"Yes?" Grimmjow turned towards her, confusion in his clear blue eyes.

"What was Byakuya like?" Grimmjow helped her into the taxi.

"Distant and closed off, a lot like her actually." He said quietly as he pulled the taxi door shut.

~.~.~.~.~

Humming happily to herself Orihime smiled. Seeing both Rukia and Rangiku the previous day had lifted her spirits immeasurably. She had spent the whole morning singing and humming happily while cooking some new dish for her friends. She wasn't exactly sure what it was because she had had to replace some of the ingredients with others since she hadn't had them in her appartment. But in her opinion it smelled and tasted delicious. She was sure that they would be happy to have some of her cooking to eat, they wouldn't be that accustomed to the World of the Living yet after not being there in over two years.

Ringing the doorbell to Ichigo's appartment yet again she smiled broadly, her face shining with happiness. Not only were her friends from the Soul Society back in the World of the Living but _he_ had also arrived in Karakura that morning. He had been gone for a while, to start university elsewhere, but after the university had realised that he and his intelligence would be better off in a larger university they had reluctantly transferred him to the Karakura Univesity instead of keeping him at theirs. She knew, as well as he did, that if he went to University here that there was a high chance that he may run into past enemies. But at this moment in time neither cared. They were simply happy that they had been given the chance to be together more often. And anyway, he took the history course, a course that none of her friends were taking to her knowledge so he would be able to hide better than he would have been able to if he had shared any of his courses with those of her friends.

Hearing Rukia coming out of the bathroom and shout a quick "Be right there!" at the door, she allowed herself to frown in worry for a second. Nobody was allowed to discover he was here or who he was. And she was terribly frightened that if her friends found out her connection to him that they would be terribly mad at her for concealing his prescence from them. Uryu would be especially unhappy. She sighed at that. She hated to make her friends unhappy but she just didn't know how to tell them all. And she sure didn't know how to tell Uryu that she didn't care for him the way that he cared for her. Someone else had taken that place in her heart.

She had given up on Ichigo long ago. She had known that her heart had done this at least by the time when she saw him stare dejectedly out of the classroom on the day that he had met Rukia a year prior. She had known then, despite what others might think or believe, that she would be unable to conquer Ichigo's heart since it had already been conquered by a petite, raven-haired and violet-eyed soul reaper. He might not know it. She might not know it. But everyone else did. It was one of the reasons she guessed that Byakuya Kuchiki got along so badly with Ichigo.

And she had always known of Uryu's more tender feelings towards her. Back in Hueco Mundo he had tried so hard to save her. He had even stated that he wasn't going to help Ichigo, but to save her. And of late the possessive nature that he was expressing around her, always being so jealous and interrogating only confirmed that. She knew that she would have to tell him at some point that her heart was already given to another, but he would once again falsely believe that she meant Ichigo.

Even though she didn't.

She sighed. She really didn't want to think about what her life would be like if it got even more difficult than it already was. Emotionally that was. From the spiritual perspective and if you considered how little hollows had plagued them lately, her life couldn't be more simple and easy. But then again, when was life ever easy. Even before her spiritual powers had awakened and she had been sucked into the wonderful world of the soul reapers her life hadn't been simple. Although her troubles had been immensely smaller.

Suddenly the door in front of her opened, pulling her away from her pondering. She smiled brightly as she saw Rukia. So she had been right in assuming that Rukia had moved in with Ichigo. She couldn't imagine it any other way. It was probably annoying Byakuya quite greatly though. As far as she had seen and still could see, his sister complex had gotten even worse over the past two years.

"Rukia!" Orihime smiled happily as she hugged the small figure close to her. "I brought you some of my cooking since I know that you guys only arrived yesterday and probably didn't have much time to get something."

Rukia was proud to say that she managed to keep the grimace off of her face. Orihime's cooking was notoriously strange and she didn't want to imagine what her friend had exactly concocted this time around. She appreciated the gesture greatly though and so she smiled at her without abandon.

"Thank you so much Orihime, I'm sure Ichigo will be thrilled to eat it as well when he gets home today." She smiled at her friend as Orihime entered the house and put one of the containers in the fridge. Orihime was animatedly chatting about going clothes shopping and inviting Rangiku and Tatsuki to come along as well. As Rukia readied her small handbag she thought about inviting Nanao, Nemu and Yachiru along as well. The other women would probably need the reprieve after the past few days. She knew for a fact that Soi Fon would be with Yuroichi, the Captain of Squad 2 had been talking of nothing else the previous day. She would probably be making life a living hell for Urahara along the way. Everybody knew how much she despised the poor man. Not for the first time Rukia wondered what exactly had occured between the two of them which could have caused such animosity.

Picking up the remaining container Orihime and Rukia made their way out of the house, deciding to first go to Captain Hitsugaya's and Rangiku's appartment to give them the container of food that Orihime had made for them. Rukia managed to conceal a small smirk, Captain Hitsugaya would be anything but happy when he saw the large container of food that Orihime held, he couldn't stomach her food any better than the rest of them. She knew for a fact that Rangiku would be ecstatic though. She would probably make her captain eat it as well.

After that they would collect the other's and go out shopping and enjoy the day. They still had a few days left before the next half of their term began, they would use the time to its fullest and relax themselves and simply have fun with their friends. After all they hadn't seen each other in over two years.

~.~.~.~.~

Ari stepped out quickly of the restaurant to catch some fresh air. As she had predicted, the past three hours had been absolute chaos. Ichigo for one was about to snap. The advances that some of the women were attempting to make on him were grating on his last nerve. He hadn't slept well as far as she could see and from experience she could say that the poor man was about to explode.

None of them were any better off though. Kura had been awoken much earlier than all of them due to the ruckus created by the oncoming storm of customers. That she had had a late night before had meant that her sleep had also been cut short and her friend was about to blow a fuse herself. Normally the unwanted attentions she got from the men around her didn't bother her but right now, after four relentless hours of serving in a full restaurant, even her patience was reaching its limits.

Haruo and Manabu were off even worse in her opinion. The two of them had been working non-stop in the kitchen for the past four hours and she knew that after a certain amount of time in a steaming kitchen with a broken airconditioning the men would reach their boundaries soon. Both had already snapped at Ine for his interferrence in their work as well as lecturing about the speed at which they should cook. It had only taken inhuman amounts of control on both parts to not throw a pot at him and tell him exactly what they thought of as 'good cooking'. Ine had quickly vanished at their thunderous expressions and made himself scarce. He had appeared soon after though, manning the counter since even he couldn't stand listening to Harumi Kobayashi go on and on to her son about what a great deed he had done in procuring them so many customers. The man was on the verge of quitting himself, Hideki literally driving him up the walls with his manipulating manner.

And Kaito appeared to be having double the amount of stress compared to them. His father had apparently decided to visit the newly 'famous' restaurant at which his son worked and Kaito was now attempting to impress his father with his work ethic and whatnot. The poor man looked, quite frankly, like he was about to collapse.

For her, her troubles were of a more distant nature. That morning she had walked past a man with whom Ichigo had later conversed and she swore that she had briefly recognised his spirtual pressure when she had brushed past him. But that had to be impossible. There was no way that someone from her past could be here in the World of the Living. Or could there?

She sighed softly and leaned her head against the cool wall trying to relieve her headache. To top it all off a storm was gathering in every sense of the word. When Grimmjow and Nel had told her about the demons and their recent activities it had only confirmed her worst fears. When she and the others had escaped from the creator's dimension so many millenia ago they had nearly given their lives in sealing off the entrance and exit behind them. She guessed she should be greatful that the seal had held this long. It still hurt to think that those monsters were coming free though. She, along with Nel, Grimmjow, her lost brother and Nel's lost cousin were the last few of their kind. They were the only ones with the power to defeat these demons in large numbers.

In their world they had been known as the "Kyoro", also known as "Demon Slayers". They were the last of the two clans which had been responsible for eliminating large numbers of these horrible creatures. Of course there had been other demon slayers and there probably still were. The organisations had still been standing when they had fled. She and Grimmjow had been but ten years old at the time. They had been incredibly frightened and scared. It had, after all, been only a couple of years after the 'accident' which had awakened their ultimate powers. She looked down at her hands ruefully. Even now it was hard to sometimes contain the immense power they controlled. Being a Kyoro was hard for so many reasons. Especially due to the fact that she and Grimmjow were "Humana Angelicas" too. She sighed again. When had her life become so complicated again?

She looked up at the swirling clouds in the November sky and silently closed her eyes. The demons would come. And they could come soon. It wouldn't be long now, she could smell it in the wind. And if Aizen had truly banded up with these terrible creatures then it would be more than just her, Grimmjow and Nel in danger. It would be all of her newfound friends too. And despite all her misgivings about getting involved in other people's affairs, she wouldn't be able to allow that. Not over her soul. With a hard expression on her face she went back inside into the restaurant, deciding that right now her bigger problem were the masses inside the Kobayashi restaurant. She groaned softly. It seemed as if her pile of troubles was doing nothing but growing in size.

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><p><em> AN: First off I would like to thank **HappyFestus** on their review on chapter 13, thank you so much. =) I would also like to thank anyone who put this story or its author on their lists, your support is what keeps me going when I'm not quite sure as to how the story should continue. Thank you so much all of you. =)_

_ As already stated in my other story, "Memories", I have been having a slight writer's block concerning these two stories and am profoundly glad that I have overcome it. Speaking of that story, now might be a good time to cast a glance at it, despite it's unfinished status, since it does contain quite a few details of why Grimmjow is so determined to keep Ari and Byakuya from meeting. At least I hope it does that and not confuse you even more. =)  
><em>

_ I promise that I shall try and be a bit quicker with the update for the next chapter, the ideas are all flooding into me now so it shouldn't be a problem. ;) I will also try and explain a bit more about the strange past of Ari, Grimmjow and Nel within the next couple of chapters and now that Rukia and Ichigo are finally in the same appartment again you can expect a certain meddling father to turn up to meet his 'third' daughter... =P =D  
><em>


	15. Walking streets of the past and future

_ A/N: First off I'd like to thank anyone who put this story or its author on their lists, thank you so much for your support guys. =) If you did leave a review for the previous chapter then I will thank those of you who did too. Strangely I haven't been able to access my account properly these past few days and any hits, reviews or otherwise have all been lost. I'm truly sorry about that, but thank you if you did. =)_

_ And now to the chapter. This chapter is a filler of sorts between the last and the upcoming action. I felt the need to explain more about this unseen enemy as well as maybe filling some other gaps and giving an insight into Nel and Grimmjow. Hopefully I achieved that, I'm not sure if it turned out exactly as I wanted it too._

_ More IchiRuki and other pairings will come up in the next couple of chapters, as I said before, this chapter concentrates mainly on Nel and Grimmjow. ;P_

_ Anyways, enough babbling from me. Enjoy! ;D  
><em>

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><p><em>Forever and Always<em>

_Chapter 15 - Walking the streets of the past and future_

Grimmjow looked up from his position at the television. He and Nel had arrived back from shopping a few hours ago and he swore that he would never put himself through that kind of torture again. The past few days had been pure torture from his point of view. Ari had, to be fair, hinted at it last night. He had never thought that he would actually agree with her on a matter such as this. Nel took forever to decide what she wanted and by the time they had managed to procure enough clothes to her tastes, he had been about to go mad. But they had managed to come up with some sort of strategy to make sure that Byakuya and Ari didn't meet. They had even begun to slowly set it in action. They had also discussed, at great length, the possibility of the demons turning up in this world soon. They both disliked the thought deeply.

They were "Kyoro" as they had been referred to in their old world, so they would probably be the only ones to defeat them in this one. Before he had been sucked into Hueco Mundo and temporarily lost control, he had been on a sharp lookout for what those monsters were up to. Back then, about ninety years ago, the old organisations from their past had still existed. They had still been hunting down the demons that were around. But none of the organisations had realised or voiced their realisation that at least half of the government were demons in disguise.

He leaned back as he let himself be swept up in what he percieved to be his past. Kyoro's were the few elected with powers to defeat the demons. In each one of them the powers manifested themselves differently, each of them using the power bestowed onto them in a different manner. Some used the elements; fire, wind, water, earth and electricity, while others tended to be more of the psychic branch. Overall there had been about a hundred different organisations in his dimension, all of them varying slightly and containing about ten to fifty members each. The creator's dimension had been a large one. He corrected himself mentally. It still was. It wasn't as if it had been destroyed back then, it still existed. No one apart from them knew about it, even if some people like this Kisuke Urahara he had heard about might suspect that it existed.

The demons were wild and ferocious creatures, all of them having one thing in common despite their varying abilities. They all devoured souls. And once a soul was within the demon it was gone, destroyed. There was no way that it could ever be revived or reborn. It wasn't like it was in the Soul Society where when a hollow died its devoured victims appeared somewhere in the Soul Society, be it in the Rukongai or the Seretei. The organisations of the creator's world took care of these creatures for money, killing them off as best as they could. Normal, small-scale demons weren't a problem. They were referred to as "Tchock". Their language was an old one, the terms from millenia ago had remained, never changing.

Middle-scale demons or "Nyanta" presented a slightly larger problem. While the Tchock could be warded off with simple charms or even a broom or other objects in some cases, the nyanta weren't as harmless as the Tchock were. They normally travelled in groups and were more commonly known as the Nya-pests, deriving from their original name. The various Kyoro organisations were often called in at the point when the Nyanta started wreaking real havock, they truly were a bother.

But the real problem came when the large-scale demons or "Girah" turned up. They were real problems, cocky enough to attack humans and suck up their souls. They were the creatures that they normally didn't have to deal with. Because surprisingly these creatures mainly kept to themselves, rarely travelling in groups or even pairs. But before he and Ari had been born he knew that the Kyoro had waged a small war against the demons, eliminating nearly two-thirds of the then existant Girah. That was probably why there were so little left, even ninety years ago.

Sighing in resignation Grimmjow leaned back and intensely began to study the nearly spotless ceiling. The "Froh" were the masterminds behind it all though. They possessed the intelligence of humans, something that the other demon kinds did not, or only to varying degrees. They had been the ones who had started the wars between the Kyoro and demons and it was really them that most people truly feared. Being able to take on the shapes of normal people and being able to mingle with them made it so hard for the Kyoro to find them and then eliminate them. In some respects he was really glad that he didn't have to deal with them anymore. The demons were truly something that he hated. They were brutal, cold and uncaring. He and so many others hated them with a deep passion.

And that brought them back to the matter at hand. Ari, Nel and himself were of some of the last clans who had been able to spot and identify the Froh. None of them still knew why. He shrugged to himself, not wanting to try and solve that problem yet again. It seemed that they were just genetically predispositioned to be so and he left it at that.

Their powers had developed early on, even long before the explosion that had shattered their fragile peace. Nel could manipulate the plants. No matter where she was she always managed to find the plants or even create them. And although most would not believe it, plants could be truly frightening weapons. He knew it himself from training with her for so long. He himself was an elemental user, his element being lightning. This element was extremely rare and he took great pride knowing this. Ari had often told him not to be so cocky but to be truly honest he didn't really care that much. He was good and he knew it. Everyone else might as well know it too.

But he, Nel and every other Kyoro ever to have been in existance suffered from a major setback that only Ari didn't have. Their powers limited themselves to their bodies. He could send electrical sparks quite a fair distance, but they always had to come from him first. The lightning bolts he wielded also had to be touching his body, otherwise they would dissipate in a cloud of sparkling dust. The same went for Nel and her plants. Ari had developed, and it had to be noted that this had been done secretly by her, various... power levels if you wished to call them that. She could increase or decrease her power exponentially and while he and Nel already had an amazing amount of control, she was the only one to ever have conquered her power and truly made it part of herself.

She wasn't happy though. She resented being powerful. All his sister had ever wanted was peace and a calm, happy life. She hadn't wanted war. She hadn't wanted conflict. And every time she had gotten close to that long sought-after happiness it had erupted like a bubble once it's touched.

He closed his eyes, still recalling the painful seperation they had had when their younger sister had betrayed them. It had hurt them all beyond belief. And while they had all initially blamed themselves it was Ari who still did. They had managed to go on but she was still battling that internal demon of guilt. He didn't know if Lissa was still alive, but after what information he had been able to gather over the years it looked like she still was. And it looked like his treacherous uncle, Lissa and Akemi had closed some sort of pact with those monsters. That stopped them from being family in his eyes, no matter how much he may have loved them before.

He knew one thing for certain. He never wanted to see any of them ever again.

~.~.~.~.~

Nel watched with worry as she saw Grimmjow's face present a play of different expressions and emotions. He seemed lost deep in thought and that was probably why he hadn't noticed her yet. She knew that she had tired him out with all of the shopping over the past few days but she also knew that it had kept his mind from wandering like it was obviously doing now. Given enough time all of them began to travel down the long and weary road into the past within their minds. She was no different from him in that respect.

Seeing the acute pain flash across his face she suddenly knew what he was thinking of. Lissa. No one else managed to pull that pained and betrayed expression onto Grimmjow's and Ari's faces as she did. It had been a shock to her too back then, she reflected. None of them had expected that sweet little Lissa would betray them in favour for power and Ari's and Grimmjow's uncle. But she had. And by doing so had etched a permanent scar into her sibling's hearts.

Letting loose a frustrated sigh she attempted to shake her head clear of such depressing thoughts. She had never been one to dwell on occurances and grievances from the past and she sure as hell wasn't going to start now.

Grabbing her jacket on her way out she quickly called to Grimmjow that she was going for a stroll and left. He just looked after her and nodded briefly. The sudden returning of his memories was still hitting him hard, she knew as much. She had, after all, gone through the same experience some years or decades prior. In Hueco Mundo it had been hard to keep track of time and the sudden return of her lost memories had finally spurned her to leave the ranks of the Espada and try to live with herself and her past.

She had always had a soft and childish heart. She knew that much. But she also knew that her two friends loved her for that. In their eyes she still represented a certain amount of innocence that they had lost so long ago. Her cousin had been the vivid contrast to her, never seeming to care and always acting as cold as a clump of ice. Looking up at the angry sky she let out an annoyed mumble. No matter how stupid her cousin had acted she still missed him. But as far as she knew Ichigo had killed him two years prior. Maybe Ulquiorra would turn up somewhere again soon. He was truly the only blood family that she had left.

Over the years they had become scattered and Hueco Mundo had temporarily erased all of their memories. A limited bliss that she now greatly appreciated. She had been the first to recieve those lost memories and she somehow knew that minutes or maybe even just seconds before his death Ulquiorra had too. And now Grimmjow had returned to the ranks of the ones with their memories as well. They were nearly complete once more. That had her smiling. Together again. Now wouldn't that truly be a blessing?

Grimacing she remembered that her cousin was AWOL. That went for the younger brother of Ari and Grimmjow too. He had dissappeared off the maps about two hundred years ago, having gotten split up while on the run. That escape had resulted in her and Ulquiorra landing in Hueco Mundo. They had meant to search for him there while Ari and Grimmjow combed through the Soul Society. She and Ulquiorra had been corrupted though, much to her discontent. And even Ari and Grimmjow had gotten pulled into living a relatively normal life once again.

Smiling softly she saw Ichigo across the street. The strange friendship that the two of her had struck while they had travelled together in Hueco Mundo truly surprised her. She laughed softly, not wanting him or anyone else to hear. The young man was stubborn and inconsiderate a lot of the time but he truly cared for his friends and she knew that if the occasion arose he would also die for them.

As the raindrops began to fall she pulled out her bright neon green umbrella, grinning at how all the people stared at her colourful protection against the rain. Ichigo was currently holding out his umbrella to a small petite woman whom she knew to be Rukia. She wondered how long the idiot would take to realise that he loved her. She shook her head. As she and Ari had often said, there was only one word that described it all. Men.

Seeing Ari scampering across the street to get under her umbrella to shield herself from the rain before saying a cheery hello, Nel smiled. The large amounts of soul reapers had to be here for the protection of the humans within Ichigo's group as well as Ichigo himself. Beginning to make her way back to the appartment block in which Ari lived, they both chatted happily. Maybe someone would bless them with some temporary peace after all and give them a short reprieve from the pathways of the past.

~.~.~.~.~

Ichigo groaned as the first raindrops began to fall. November was truly beginning to settle in. Tomorrow would be the last day of their half-term and afterwards they would have to get back to their various studies and activities. It seemed as if a gloom had already settled over the student body, nobody wanted their holidays to end. And the now-falling rain reflected this mood perfectly.

Rukia on the other hand was more than just excited. She was ecstatic. Rain, real rain! How long had she waited to feel the wet on her skin once more. She laughed as she shortly danced underneath the falling drops before Ichigo pulled her underneath the umbrella he had gotten out, smirking slightly at her happy expression. She stuck out her tongue at him and he just shook his head. He would never understand why she loved the rain so much. It just reminded him of that horrible day of his mother's death.

He had begun to get over her death in the past two years, slowly being able to move on. Of course, the pain of losing her would never go completely but at least he didn't sink into a semi-depressed state whenever it rained nowadays. Rukia had a lot to do with that he guessed. She had helped him see that it wasn't really his fault that his mother had died. And then of course the biggest surprise of all had been his father who had in some alien fashion also contributed towards him getting to move on.

He realised that this burden that was slowly being lifted off of his shoulders felt incredibly good. Better than he ever thought it would.

Ari had accompanied them until a few minutes ago. Having spotted her friend she had taken off after waving a quick good-bye to the both of them. Looking over the street he saw a bright green umbrella and both him and Rukia shook their heads in wonder. Ari's friend reminded him so much of the Nel from Hueco Mundo. Yet she obviously wasn't it. This Nel wasn't an Arrancar and the Nel that he had known hadn't been able to hold her grown form this long. He sort of missed the hyper child, she had grown quite close to his heart as a friend. Hopefully she would visit some time soon. The arrival of all of the soul reapers had given him hope that she might be able to do so too.

And that brought around the second issue that had been bugging him for days. They had all met with Urahara and he, Uryu, Chad, Orihime, Tatsuki, Keigo and Mizuiro had been more than just shocked when they had seen all of the soul reapers. Nobody had expected that many to be here. Especially not so many of such high ranks. To which an annoyed Soi Fon had replied that she didn't understand it either. Captain Ukitake had been kind enough to explain that they hadn't wanted to risk it. Of course, no one had exactly planned or expected to get stuck here either.

And here came problem number three. Everyone was stuck here with no contact to the Soul Society. Yuroichi and Urahara were more than just worried. And Ichigo didn't like that. Those two were always in control of what they did and now they were at a loss at what to do. And despite Soi Fon's many threats to castrate Urahara, he hadn't been able to come up with anything yet. Everyone's hopes were packed tightly into that small and seemingly insignificant 'yet'. He loved having Rukia back but he didn't know if he would be able to cope with having Byakuya around for an indiscernable amount of time. Attending the same university that he and the others were also attending. He held back another heavy sigh. How they would all make it out of this situation without killing one another was still beyond him.

Smiling and waving over at Yoshinori Hashimoto, the guard to their appartment tower, Ichigo pointedly ignored the wink that the other man gave him. Thankfully Rukia didn't see the wink though, he didn't know how she would react to such an action.

After they had gotten out of the elevator they stepped into the warmth of their appartment. Both of them were dripping wet, the rains in November always came surprisingly fast. Ichigo looked around himself suspiciously. Where was Kon?

"He's downstairs at Uryu's." Rukia held up a small scribbled note, having had just about as much faith as Ichigo had had in the yellow plush lion. You never truly knew where the pervert might be hiding to jump out at them. Or to be more precise, jump out at her. She rolled her eyes in annoyance. The persistant actions of the mod sol never failed to amaze her.

"That's good." Ichigo looked happy at that, not that she could blame him though. Over the course of the past week Kon had been more than just ecstatic at seeing her. Something that had always rubbed Ichigo in the wrong way. Thankfully Byakuya knew nothing about the perverted lion though. Ichigo was sure that either one of three things would happen. One, he would kill Kon. Two, he would kill Ichigo, whom he would probably see as the one at fault. And three he would take Rukia away from the appartment. Looking at the three options, Ichigo felt forced to admit that it would probably end up being all three. Or at least the first two options. Byakuya would probably even go to the trouble of destroying the mod sol and not just the plush lion.

After forcing themselves to eat the last portion of Orihime's cooking they both settled down on the couch. To the intense annoyance of Ichigo, Rukia began to rewatch one of the Chappy episodes she had missed during her abscence. Letting out a slightly disgruntled sigh he turned back to the textbook which was lying in his lap. He had a test tomorrow, something he had completely forgotten about over the course of the past couple of days.

As the hours wore on and on, neither person felt the need to say much. They had spent a large portion of the morning arguing and they had also argued continuously over the past three days. In their minds they felt absolutely and utterly exhausted. Both of them were also trying to furiously stem the feelings of happiness at being with the other. They were friends and nothing more, right?

Suddenly Rukia leaned against his shoulder and Ichigo felt his breath hitch. He looked down at the small woman beside him to see that her eyelids were starting to fall shut. He sat absolutely still, feeling tense underneath the sudden contact. He heard her let out a tired sigh and felt her breathing slow down. Not a few minutes later and she was calmly sleeping at his side.

Smirking and ignoring his racing heart he lifter her up, bridal style. Surprise flooded through him as she settled into his arms and snuggled closer, her breathing evening out even more. She would never admit it to any being, but he made her feel safe.

Staring down at the petite soul reaper through the dim light Ichigo allowed a soft smile to overtake him. She would never know just how much she meant to him. Moving forward slowly, so as to not wake her he pushed open her bedroom door and switched on the small bedside table lamp that she possessed. It was in the shape of Chappy and he shook his head at how much she loved the animated series. It made no sense to him and was firmly beyond reasoning.

As he put her down on the bed he began to pull away but stopped when she gripped his shirt firmly, refusing to let go. He attempted several times to pry her fingers off of his shirt but she was refusing to do so. Never one to admit defeat he let out an exasperated sigh. What was he supposed to do now? She had his shirt in a death grip and he could hardly take it off on the off chance that she should wake up or some nosy friend of theirs just walk in without knocking.

Giving off a resigned sigh he carefully pulled her chair close to him and sat down on it. Looking at her face he felt his heart soften. He didn't know what it was about her. Something about her made her feel like he wanted to protect her for all eternity. Shaking his head he tried to deny those very thoughts and focused on her gentle breathing in front of him.

In. And out. In. And out.

Again and again and again.

Drowsiness overtook him and he welcomed the coming darkness happily. Somewhere in the back of his mind a voice tried to remind him of something but the tension of the past few days, the uneasy sleep of the past few weeks all blocked that voice out. The last thing that he remembered was sinking onto something soft. Sighing happily this time he made himself more comfortable and gave himself to the oncoming sleep.

~.~.~.~.~

The rain poured down and at that very moment in time Ari and Byakuya looked out of their respective windows out into the night. They both hated the rain. And both of them hated it for the very same reason.

_The day she died wasn't much different from this._ His thoughts echoed throughout his mind.

_How many years has it been? Sixty-two? Sixty-three?_ Her mind was circling on the same events from the past.

_Why do I feel like they're here? Why is there this feeling of déja-vu?_ Their thoughts were now identical, mirroring each other.

Both of them looked up at the churning storm clouds. They hated thinking of the past and travelling down those all-too-familiar streets. Why exactly couldn't they move on? Neither got their answer as they continued staring out into the night for a long time yet to come before trying to go and sleep. Sadly, it evaded them both once more.


	16. The Attack

_ A/N: Thank you so much to anyone who added this story or it's author to your lists. Your continued support is what keeps me going. =)_

_ I know that it's been quite some time since I updated so I do apologise, however this chapter was not that easy to write. For a long time I wasn't sure exactly how to start it off and such so I'm sorry if I made you guys wait so long. =P_

_ Apart from that I hope that you enjoy the chapter! The main plot is finally beginning in earnest... ;D  
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><p><em>Forever and Always<em>

_Chapter 16 - The Attack_

He felt himself coming towards the end of the tunnel. Finally he was seeing some light. He smirked. Soon he would be able to fulfill his mission here. The ones that would have been able to stop him weren't here. They were still stuck somewhere else. They'd never be able to travel like he was. A malicious grin overtook his demonic features. Not long now. The he would be able to kill them all. Bloodlust surged through his veins. And no one would be able to stop him.

~.~.~.~.~

"Ichigo!" Ichigo blinked as he felt a tap on his head. He looked up wearily at Uryu who was staring at him in annoyance. "Wake up you dimwit! We're in a lecture!" Uryu hissed. Why was he helping him again? Oh yeah, out of pity for the orange-haired fool. There was no other explanation as to why he would risk getting caught otherwise. He turned back around to face the front of the lecture hall in his seat. He glanced over at his friend. He did seem to be horribly out of it though. He hadn't had any of his usual spunk the whole morning. He made a mental note to ask him in the upcoming break. No need to get distracted over it now.

Ichigo sighed wearily but resisted the urge to plonk down his head on the table once more. When he had woken up in the morning he had found himself half on Rukia's bed, his head having somehow found its way to her stomach. He still remembered the whole incident vividely...

_He blinked, trying to ignore the burning sunlight that was reaching his eyes. Where was he again? It wasn't his room, that much was for sure._

_He heard a soft moan and something moved beneath him. Turning his head he got it around just in time to see Rukia's eyes flutter open and his chocolate brown met her violet. Shock reverberated through both of them and he sprung him. _

_Only now both noticed the iron tight grip that she had on his shirt. Crimson quickly overtook her face as she pushed him back with a squeak._

_"Baka!" She shouted and they stared at each other for several painstakingly long seconds._

_Suddenly both broke free and he fled the room and she quickly dove under her duvet and pillow. Both felt absolutely mortified and nothing short of embarrassed. They had slept the whole night together. Well not together together, but still! They had practically been in the same bed. Ichigo flushed bright red at the connotations that came up with that._

_No way in hell was he telling Renji, Uryu or Chad. They'd have to burn him alive first before he said anything. By that time of course he would be dead and unable to say anything. In theory._

_They quickly got dressed, each ignoring the other and concentrating on the trivial matters at hand. Kon had simply looked from one room-mate to the other and shook his head. Those two would never make sense to him._

_Whenever they met each other's eye they blushed furiously and looked or walked the other direction. They left quickly and quietly that morning, neither uttering a word to the other._

Ichigo shook his head. He shouldn't be concentrating on how to overcome the situation from this morning, but rather concentrate on the lecture that was being given in front of him. After all, the professor had announced an upcoming test on this topic before the lecture had started and he had lost his head in space.

Lunch approached and it approached too fast for Ichigo's liking. Uryu kept sending him strange looks but he ignored them. Just as he was ignoring the sudden increase in soul reapers that were around him. Everyone who had come to the World of the Living from the Soul Society, apart from a very grumpy Toushiro and overly hyper Yachiru, had enrolled in the Karakura University. And so all of them were now taking courses and were coming out of theirs right now.

Looking over he saw Ari come out of her history class and then saw her brother and friend rush over to drag a very confused looking Ari away. He shook his head, no need to bother himself with that now too, he had enough on his plate as it was. A few seconds after Ari Byakuya came out of the class, looking after her in what could only be termed as confusion, before making his way over to the ever increasing flock of people around Ichigo. Who knew that so many people had come from the Soul Society?

Ichigo sighed tiredly and they all made their way over to the café that was situated on the school campus. Everyone who wasn't in a lecture was flocking there right now, wanting to eat their long awaited lunch. After they had all settled down at a slightly larger table (their usual one being too small for so many people) they began to eat their meal in a sort of semi-silence. Rangiku was busy chatting away with Orihime of course, Tatsuki joining in now and then. Byakuya was calling Captain Ukitake and Captain Kyoraku, both of whom were at Urahara's at the moment. Captain Zaraki was with them as well, all three men looked too old to still be in University so they had decided that they would be the ones who held watch during the day when they were in school.

The others were all silent or studying their textbooks. Most of them had never imagined that they would have to take courses at a university of any kind so they were busy preparing to catch up on all the material that they had 'missed'. They had all noticed the slight hush that had overcome those close to them, they knew that they were attracting attention and were desperately trying to avoid it. Ichigo lowered his head with a sigh. He knew that the other students would come sooner or later and ask how he and the others knew these 'new' students so well already.

And thus the day dragged on for him, each passing hour growing longer and longer. He needed to speak to Rukia and he knew that he would only get that chance at the end of the day. But the fates certainly didn't appear to want to grant his plea of the school day coming to an end. In fact it seemed to be exactly the other way around. So when the bell finally rang at the end of the day to signal the last of his lectures, he nearly ran out of the hall in joy.

Leaving behind Uryu in hopes of finding Rukia quickly and then making his escape he hurried through the over-filling corridors and found her standing by her locker, Orihime and the other girls not having joined her yet.

"Rukia!" He called out and she turned her head when she heard his voice.

"Ichigo?" She looked at him imploringly.

"We need to talk. Come on, let's hurry before the others come."

She nodded and took out the books that she would need for that night before making her way through the crowds towards the exit. They stopped shortly at his locker so that he could stuff the unnecessary books into it and take out the ones that were needed. As quickly as they could they made their escape from the crowded hallways and took a releaved breath of air once they were out of the university grounds and on the sidewalks that led them back home.

"About this morning..." Ichigo started and he swore that he could see her blush. "I'm sorry." Rukia looked up at him in surprise. "I guess after carrying you to bed last night that I must have fallen asleep while trying you to let go of my shirt. I didn't mean to fall asleep." He turned away, looking at the sky, the passing people, the houses, anywhere but at her.

"It's okay." She muttered, barely audible. "I'm sorry too." Now it was Ichigo's turn to be surprised. He didn't comment on it however, he knew that it would only make her even more uncomfortable.

"So..." He began after several minutes of comfortable silence. She turned to look up at his face. "How were your courses today? Did you like them?" He was surprised with himself, why was he interested in whether or not she had enjoyed her first day at the university?

"Yes, it was a lot of fun. I particularily enjoyed the etiquette classes." Ichigo turned to her with an incredulous expression.

"Etiquette classes?" He asked, not quite believing his ears.

"Yeah, nii-san thought that the elders might approve of that choice because of the rules of the Kuchiki household..." And off she went, enthusiastically talking about her courses and all that she had chosen and of how she and Byakuya were getting along much better than previously and so on. Ichigo just nodded his head and tried to remember all that she was saying since she would probably talk about it at a later date again.

Both of them were so engrossed in the conversation that they failed to notice that they had taken a wrong turn and soon found themselves face-to-face with a dead end at the end of an alleyway that Ichigo had never even seen before.

"Crap, we must have taken a wrong turn." He muttered and both of them turned around, beginning to make their way towards the entrance of the alley again. Something suddenly felt off. Both were on edge, feeling a haunting and strange atmosphere beginning to form around them. There was a pungent stench in the air, it reminded them of rotting flesh and blood.

"Rukia..." Ichigo muttered, feeling the hairs at the nape of his neck rising.

"I know, something's wrong." She replied, her eyes scanning the area around and above them for any danger as they slowly edged their way to the entrance of the alleyway.

"Found you." A deep and grating voice said lowly, a snarl present in that very timbre. Suddenly they were flung back against the wall as the ominous prescence made itself known and became visible.

"What... the hell?" Ichigo coughed as he and Rukia got back up onto their feet. The creature in front of them was horrifying. It smelt like death. Like rotting flesh and evil. It's skin or hide or whatever it was that was hanging off of it appeared slimy and slick. It was tall, much taller than Ichigo, reaching nearly three metres. It stood on it's two hind feet and seemed to tremble with pure and raw power. It's two arms were flexed at it's side, emanating the power that seemed to make up it's being. Most horrendous however was not the smell nor the body, it was the face. Twisted and dark, it had a monsterous grin on it's face, mocking them. Greasy and slick hair fell down it's back, and when it moved the hair appeared to be a seperate and living being. The beady eyes that were situated in the centre of it's face projected pure hatred and disgust upon them. The very monster gave them the feeling of cowering were they stood. It took all of their effort not to tremble, to not appear weak.

"Wh- what are you?" Rukia managed to finally get out, breaking the paralyzing hold that it had on their tongues.

"Do you really want to know Soul Reaper?" The monster said her title mockingly, as if he didn't hold much of it. Even his voice was permeated with hatred for them.

"Yeah, we do want to know." Ichigo said cockily, his fighting spirit returning.

"Ichigo-" Rukia began. Ichigo interrupted her.

"It seems to know what we are so we should get the priviledge of knowing what it is." Ichigo retorted. He didn't know why he was feeling so confident, he shouldn't be. His soul reaper form hadn't returned to him yet.

The monster cackled in glee. "You do have the arrogance that Aizen spoke of." Both of them froze at the mention of the traitor's name. "Very well. See it as me granting your dying wish. I am a demon, one that will kill you." The demon licked it's lips, enjoying the fear that he was undoubtedly installing withing them.

"You're in league with Aizen?" Ichigo said with a hard voice, pulling it's attention to him while Rukia got out the mod sol that had been located within a Chappy plush.

"Of course. He is the one that sent me to kill you all." The demon grinned, enjoying taunting the two teens. "You are simply the first, the other two follow after." His grin grew evil and malicious, the bloodlust now evident within his features.

"As if we'd let you." Rukia snarled and rushed forward at the demon, her zanpakuto raised high above her head. The monster simply looked at her in amusement as her sword made contact with his skin. It bounced right off. Ichigo, Chappy and Rukia stared at the demon in disbelief. It had no effect?

The monster chuckled evilly. "I cannot be killed by your flimsy blade Soul Reaper." With that he raised his hand and flung Rukia back Ichigo managed to catch her.

"Thank you Ichigo." She said briefly. She then stood up straight. "Go back." She murmered briefly before holding her zanpakuto upside down. "Some no mai." She said softly, the dangerous intent clear in her voice. "Tsukishiro!" She slashed her blade through the air and jumped up and out of the way. Ichigo and Chappy jumped away from the growing pillar of ice themselves, not wanting to get caught within it's freezing crevices.

Once she had landed and made sure that both Chappy and Ichigo were not caught in her zanpakuto's spell she slashed Sode no Shirayuki through the air once more, the mere motion shattering the pillar of ice.

All three of them gasped in shock as a dark figure came towards them out of the mist of the shattered ice.

"Didn't I tell you Soul Reaper? Your sword will not be the death of me." He grinned maliciously as he stepped forward and picked Rukia up by the neck, Sode no Shirayuki falling down to the ground. "You however can be killed by my claws." He taunted as he began to slowly apply pressure to Rukia's neck, seemingly enjoying her pain as she got less and less air into her lungs.

Rage overtook Ichigo. Pure and simple hatred. Grabbing into his bag he pulled out the trembling Kon and stuck his hand into the lion's mouth. Pulling out the mod sol of the lion plush he stuck the capsule into his own mouth and his soul reaper form erupted from his body. Surprised he stood there for a few seconds, stunned that he had been able to release himself from his body. Kon reacted better, although he wore a surprised expression on his face himself. He pulled Chappy back behind some dustbins, knowing that Ichigo's body and Rukia's Gigai would be protected better if they weren't in the immediate line of fire.

Recovering from his temporary shock and pleasure Ichigo turned his full attention back to the demon in front of him.

"Let her go." He said, his voice low and dangerous.

"Eh?" The demon turned to him, not happy that he was being distracted from the pleasure of killing Rukia.

"I said, let her go right now!" Ichigo grabbed Zangetsu, who was still hanging from his back and brought the huge blade forward against the arm of the demon. He felt pleasure and happiness surge through himself as he and Zangetsu greeted one another after such an extended abscence. All the motions of fighting came back to him. He could remember how to fight perfectly now. It was as if he had never even lost his powers in the first place.

The demon howled in shock as Ichigo cut the demon's arm. Shock and rage overtook it's features. Clutching his arm as the foul smelling blood burst forth he dropped Rukia to the ground. Ichigo immediately rushed forward, caught her and gave her to the still hidden Kon and Chappy.

"I don't know why you were able to cut me. You must have some of _their_ blood within your system." The demon snarled enraged. It's eyes turned a bright red as it advanced on Ichigo in earnest. Ichigo realised with a sickening sensation that the demon had been holding back before. It was all he could do to simply block the demon's strikes and blows and occasionally strike out himself. Zangetsu however never cut deep. They were only superficial cuts despite their profuse bleeding, never something serious.

He felt his strength beginning to fade. He realised that although his powers may have returned, they hadn't returned in full. They were still only a fraction of what he usually had. And he knew that he would be unable to pull on his hollow mask at this moment in time. He was still too weak, he still had too little spiritual pressure.

Suddenly arrows flew past them both, causing him and the demon to jump back.

"Ichigo. Your powers have returned?" Uryu stood at the entrance to the alleyway, his mouth hanging wide open. Behind him stood Orihime, Chad and Byakuya.

"Yeah." Ichigo got out between pants. "They just came back right now." He didn't get out any more however, the demon renewed his attack on him, obviously not considering the others a threat to himself or the battle at hand.

"It reeks of death." Chad said as his two arms began to form.

"Mhmm." Orihime nodded as she edged forward, having seen Rukia lying unconscious on the floor not too far back.

"Idiots." Byakuya said as he released himself from his Gigai, the mod sol he had inserted joining Orihime in her attempt to get to Rukia, Chappy and Kon.

Ichigo felt himself being forced to the ground, the blows becoming more and more vicious. Uryu shot his arrows at the demon, however they just bounced off the monster, embedding themselves into wells and rubbish bags instead.

Chad ran forward, ramming the demon. It just swatted him aside like a fly however, letting him crash into the wall, his head making a sickening thud as he sagged back against the very wall against which he had been flung.

"Chad!" Uryu and Ichigo cried out simultaneously as their friend didn't get back up.

"You should concentrate on me rather than your puny friend." The demon cackled, obviously enjoying the suffering he was inflicting upon them.

"Chad, wake up!" Uryu cried out as he knelt beside his friend. He let go ofca breath he had not realised that he had been holding when he found Chad's pulse still to be going strong. "Just knocked out." His knees nearly buckled under the relief. For a brief moment he had believed his friend to be in a much worse condition than simply knocked out.

Ichigo gritted his teeth as he got pushed further and further into the ground, his back screaming in pain. The wound that he had on his side from an early successful slash on the demon's part protested too against the building tension.

"Senbonsakura." Byakuya murmered softly as his zanpakuto was realeased into it's Shikai state and the swirling cherry petal blossoms floated around him, making it look like he was standing underneath a cherry tree in spring.

By silent consent the petals flew forward and attacked the demon in movements that were too fast for the eye to see.

The demon chuckled softly. "That tickles." He said, his comment letting Byakuya's expression grow infinitely harder. "You are skilled however. Maybe I'll kill you too. After I've killed him of course." The demon nodded at Ichigo. Ichigo noticed that while most of the blossom's hadn't harmed the demon, a fair amount had left lingering wounds on the creature. The demon ignored all that however and solely focused his energy on crushing him. Ichigo felt his breaths become shorter and shorter. Slowly but surely he was getting crushed.

Byakuya let anger overtake his features. This creature reminded him so much of the monster that had killed Ari all those years back. He would not let another of Aizen's experiments take another life. He had sworn himself that well over half a century ago.

And so he renewed his attacks, harming the creature more and more, hoping that Ichigo would be somehow able to escape from underneath it. He also had to be sure not to injure Ichigo. It was hard, if Ichigo weren't there he would be able to attack even better. But he could see that the young man wouldn't hold up under the monster much longer. He was reaching his limits. To be honest, it was astounding that he had held up this long after his powers had only just returned.

Uryu was attempting to lift Chad out of the debris and out of any more harm. His Quincy powers weren't doing anything against the monster, no matter how much he hated to admit it. And the flying rubble and debris had hit Chad quite a few times already. He had to get his friend out of here and let Byakuya handle the situation.

A few metres further back an injured Kon and Chappy were helped up by Orihime while the Byakuya Gigai lifted up the unconscious Rukia. Kon and Chappy had protected Rukia against the flying debris as best as they could, knowing that any further injuries may worsen her already critical condition. She was still finding it hard to breathe, the pressure that the demon had applied on her throat seriously damaging her airway.

All were so engrossed in their own battles and rescue attempts that no one noticed the figure hovering in the air above them. The figure was veiled and no clear features could be seen. The white veil that rested on her head covered her face and the white uniform she wore bore no semblance to anything that any of them had ever seen before.

"So he truly went there and sent one of those creatures here." She said sadly, gazing down at the creature that was pinning Ichigo to the ground with a dark expression. "I'm sorry demon, but you have to go back to where you came from." With that she dropped from the sky.

Byakuya and the others heard the whistling and looked up just in time to see the veiled person land on the creature. Without a word she plunged a sword into the demons back, cutting straight through it's spine before jumping back up and landing a short distance away.

The demon screamed out in pain, writhing a thrashing widly. Ichigo used the opportunity presented and scurried out underneath it, wriggling away from the weight that was threatening to crush him.

"You!" The demon screamed in pain. "How come one of you is here? You shouldn't be here!" He screamed as the mere movement ripped it's muscles even further apart. It collapsed into a heap, cursing obscenities in another, much more ancient, language.

"I'm sorry. Dissappear." She said, the threat in her voice obvious. And as the others stared at the veiled woman in shock and amazement she took the hilt of her sword in both hands and rushed forward, her sword piercing straight through the demon's heart.

The shout that followed was so inhumane, so tortured that everyone who was still conscious felt the need to clamp their hands to their ears to block out the sound.

"Your death will appear natural." She hissed at the creature. "They will find parts of you floating around in the passage, making it appear like another failed mission." Her voice was filled with disgust. "Nobody will know that it was I who killed you. Nobody will know it was one of us." With that she pulled her sword out of the creature.

As the sword hung at her side, the blood still dripping down it, she held one of her hands out above the dying demon and with a serene expression and voice said; "Now go in peace." With that a light erupted out of her hands and everyone around them shut their eyes as the light nearly blinded them. When they opened them again the veiled woman was gone. And all that remained of the monster were ashes that settled gently on the ground and them too.

Ichigo, Uryu and Byakuya began coughing profusely as the breathed in the burning dust that remained. With all they had they attempted to hold on to the conscience that was slowly evading them. As they all dropped and fell they only had one thought in mind: Who was that veiled woman that had essentially saved their lives?


	17. Aftermath

_A/N: First of all I have to apologise to you all for letting you wait so long for this chapter to come out. Lately exams and school have been quite hectic and coupled with writer's block, this chapter was proving to be more difficult to write than anticipated... =P  
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_ Thankfully the writer's block has been defeated (! =D) and exams are going to be finished soon to so updating for all of my stories should become more regular and not spaced as far apart as it was. Thank you so much for your patience though. =)  
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_ Thank you also to **IchigoMoonCutter** and **quietreaper** for their reviews on chapter 16, your support for my story despite my lack in updating skills is really amazing. =) Thank you so much. =D 3  
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_ And now onto chapter 17 of Forever and Always... Please leave a review! ;D  
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><p><em>Forever and Always<em>

_Chapter 17 - Aftermath_

"Are you nuts?" He shouted at her, worry lacing his voice. "What if they had seen your face? What would you have done then?"

"Well they didn't so stop your whining." The woman took off the veil which had guarded her features so well.

"They could've though." Her partner retorted, anger evident on his worried features. He had worried for her, even if he refused to say so.

"What was I supposed to do? Let Kurosaki die? Because he damn well was pretty close to losing his life back there!" She shouted back at him, her own ire and anger rising along with her raised voice.

"I just don't see why you did it. You said that we should keep out of it." He shot back at her, his brow creased with confusion at her seemingly irrational actions.

"That was before the demons actually made it into this world. They weren't meant to break through the barrier." She folded the veil carefully, the dim light from beyond the curtains illuminating the white material.

"None of us knew that it was going to be breached. We would have worked on creating another one otherwise." He muttered in defeat, knowing that he couldn't win this argument with her.

She pulled her long hair out of the clip that had adorned it before. The hair fell down in rippling waves, varying in its shades and tones. "The barrier broke. It held for thousands of years, so we should have expected it to break some time soon." She shook her head from side to side, letting the hair dance in the pale light. "And you know that the soul reapers can do practically nothing against the demons. The demons are made from a material that their swords cannot cut. Although Kurosaki and one of the soul reapers present were managing to illicit some damage." At that her partner's head snapped up.

"They managed to hurt those abomidations?"

"Somehow yes. I don't know about the other soul reaper, I didn't get to see his face, but I've had the suspicion for some time now that Kurosaki has some _other_ blood within him." She turned her back on him once more and made her way across the elaborate appartment to the bathroom, wanting to get rid of the blood stains of the demon that were beginning to dry on her. She also needed to get rid of the ashes. While she may be impervious to its poison, even her skin would not last forever under its toxins. If she had breathed any of it in then she would probably have been having slight hallucinations by now. That dust had been particularily aggressive. Almost as if the demon had been a poison type. It probably had been.

"So he might have some _other_ blood within him." Her partner mused, a curious expression overcoming his face. "Maybe one of the refugees that fled so long ago settled in this world and became one of his ancestors."

"Most probably." She replied. "I'm happy he has his powers back though. Saves us the trouble from keeping those hollows off of his back."

"True." The man nodded. "It was getting kind of pesky doing that."

"It's good that none of the others noticed that though. He leaks his spiritual energy like a broken tap." She sighed as she began to put away the sword that she had been carrying until then.

"Mhmm." The man nodded once more. "I see why you did it. I just don't understand it."

"One day you might. But once those freaky things become involved I just can't let things unfold like that monster had planned to. And anyways, all the other demons will find are pieces of him floating in the passageway. It will look like an accident, another mission gone wrong. I made sure to erase all traces of foreign substances and spiritual pressures."

"You don't take chances when it comes to demons." It was a statement, not a question.

"No, not with them." She said as the bathroom door fell shut behind her. "Never with them." She whispered as she sank to the floor.

The man just walked across the room to the window and pulled back the curtains, staring out nearly desolately across the ever-busy city.

~.~.~.~.~

"They're probably just affected by that weird dust we found on them." Kisuke said as Hanataro got up and sank into the plush couch that stood in Ichigo's appartment in exhaustion.

"Yeah..." Hanataro trailed off, managing to re-enter his Gigai before falling into a deep and exhausted sleep. He had spent the past five hours healing not only the spiritual bodies of the three soul reapers but also the physical ones as well. He was at the end of his strength, his power of healing completely used up for the moment. Kisuke looked at the young man in sympathy. It had been no easy task and yet he had mastered it wonderfully.

"I wonder what caused that dust though..." Yuroichi mused as she looked at the four inate figures lying on futons in Ichigo's living room.

"I believe that it was a monster similar to the one that was chasing Captain Kuchiki and the others not too long ago, if not the same." He looked at the sleeping form of the aforementioned captain. He had never seen the icy captain look so peaceful and warm. "What bothers me though is how that creature died. The way that those three collapsed does not show how we would usually imagine their fights to go."

"Yeah, Byakuya still had his zanpakuto drawn, Rukia looked like she had nearly been strangled and Ichigo looked half-dead. And Uryu did as well. I wonder what really went on there." Yuroichi gazed once more at the three soul reapers and then promptly pushed Kisuke out of the door. She was in no mood to wake up those three. They deserved their rest and healing time.

"Well I guess we'll just have to find out once they wake up and the effects of the poison are gone." Kisuke nodded at her while she closed the door. Silently they made their way to the others who were all waiting in Jushiro's and Shunsui's appartment, eleven floors further up.

When they had felt the spike in spiritual pressures coming from those three all of them had immediately rushed over to see what was happening, only to arrive onto a scene of devastation and the three collapsed soul reapers. They had immediately moved all of them to Ichigo's appartment, wanting to prevent them from extracting any further harm and pain from themselves.

And while they had all horded in Captain Ukitake's and Captain Kyoraku's appartment some floors further up, Hanataro had immediately begun to heal them, only to find the task becoming exceedingly difficult due to the lingering poison. Kisuke, Yuroichi, Tessai, Jinta and Ururu had stayed on the battle scene, not wanting others to erase potentially vital clues to what had happened.

Kisuke had taken samples of the dust and ashes that seemed to be everywhere while Yuroichi and Tessai had checked the area for remains and traces of spiritual pressure. Jinta and Ururu had stood guard. Checking in shortly on the still poisoned soul reapers and mod sols, they had then proceeded to make their way back to the Urahara shop, needing to evaluate the samples that they had taken.

The results had them baffled even more. The substance was unknown of, it reacted to none of the regular tests and chemicals. In fact, it appeared to be nearly... otherworldly. What worried Yuroichi more though were the traces of an unidentifyable attack that had been dealt to the thing that had been attacking Ichigo and the others. It wasn't the attack of anyone they knew, yet she had the strange feeling that she had seen something similar to it before.

All in all, it had just produced even more unanswered questions. Questions which couldn't be answered until the others woke up from their sleep or coma. They would just have to wait and see. Only time would be able to tell them what they were looking for.

~.~.~.~.~

"I wonder how much longer it's going to take them to wake up." Renji looked down in worry at the still sleeping forms of Rukia, Ichigo, Uryu and his captain. Even the three mod sols, Kon, Chappy and the unnamed one of Byakuya were all still sleeping in their stuffed animal form.

"They're just sleeping off the effects of the poison." Hanataro said from his position on the couch. He had hardly left the room in the past three days, watching over his seven patients with a vigilance that surprised most of the other soul reapers.

"Yeah, but I've never seen Ichigo or Rukia out this long. My captain's another story altogether. I've never even seen him sleep." Renji muttered, refusing to let his worry show in full. Captain Kuchiki was a man who never showed any weaknesses, even when injured. He knew this from fighting him himself. To see him out like this... it was unsettling to say the least.

"I'm sure that Captain Kuchiki sleeps too." Hanataro protested weakly.

Renji gave him a look. "Yeah, but not in front of other people." Sarcasm laced his voice.

Over the past three days Ichigo's friends had been the ones who had been worried the most. At least, they were the ones who showed their worry the most. Orihime had dropped by several times to help Hanataro heal them, so far to no obvious effect. Chad just took the position of the silent observer next to Hanataro and watched Orihime heal.

Both friends had told Kisuke what had happened. They hadn't been able to see much through the dust and it almost seemed as if their memories of what they had seen had been locked away. The mystery just grew as they didn't seem to be affected by the dust as the others were. They had been unconscious briefly but had awoken after several hours, their memories fragmented.

Tatsuki came a couple of times before pronouncing that she couldn't do this, watch her two friends lying there so inactively. Thus she had requested that they just tell her if anything changed. She didn't like seeing anyone that she knew well that hurt. Mizuiro and Keigo and agreed with her, not having experienced seeing Ichigo and Rukia hurt as often as the others had. It made them uncomfortable and scared, so they tried to support the others from the sidelines, knowing that they wouldn't be able to do as much.

Tatsuki had also gone to Ichigo's workplace and pronounced him sick, so sick that he was in a coma in fact. When the owner had objected and said that Ichigo couldn't fool anyone and that he better turn up at work the following day, Tarsuki had told her with a coldness that could rival Byakuya's just where she could stick that demand. She had agreed to let Ichigo off after that.

The university had also accepted the doctor's note that Orihime and Chad had inadvertadly let Uryu's father form to mark the four as absent. For once they was glad that his father was a doctor. Ichigo's family had also visited twice over the course of the past three days, the father being just as worried as the sisters were. His surprised reaction at seeing Byakuya out as well though would have been comical were the situation not as serious and dire as it were.

And so they all now took turns to guard their four poisoned friends and companions. Right now it was Renji's turn. Urahara had predicted that the monsters might return to finish off what they had started.

And none of them were willing to take any chances.

The silence spread out across the appartment again. Renji settled on a chair halfway between the door and the windows. His Gigai was settled closer to the others, sitting on the couch next to Hanataro, who was in the process of falling asleep again.

And so the next four hours passed, the only noises disturbing the quiet being Hanataro's gentle snoring and the occasional cough from Rukia. Ichigo moved quite a lot in his sleep while Byakuya remained nearly motionless, the soft rise and fall of his chest being the only indication that he was indeed still alive. And Uryu just... well slept.

Suddenly a scream tore through the appartment, causing both Renji and Hanataro to jump up and stare around in confusion, searching for the source of the horrid noise.

A croaked voice behind them broke them out of their reverie. "Renji? Is that you? Where are we?" Renji spun around, his relief at hearing Rukia's voice nearly bringing tears to his eyes.

"Oh thank god you're awake." Hanataro was the first to react, rushing forward, allowing his medical side to take over him. He had actually burst into tears. "Oh Miss Rukia, we were all so worried when you didn't wake up!" He wailed after checking her over quickly.

"What do you mean?" Rukia coughed while Hanataro slowly let go of her, afraid that she would fall into a coma again.

"Rukia." She looked up at Renji's relieved voice. "Don't you remember?" He asked hesitantly, not wanting her to call forth memories that might hurt her in any manner.

"Remember what exactly?" Rukia's brow crinkled in confusion.

"Of that fight you had." Renji said hesitantly, not exactly sure how it could be that she appeared to remember nothing at all.

Rukia sat there several minutes as the clock ticked on in the unbearable silence. Suddenly her face contorted in pain and she gasped several times, breathing in and out quite heavily.

"Miss Rukia, what's the matter?" Hanataro immediately rushed to her side.

"The fight..." She whispered, trailing off. "Where are nii-san and Ichigo?" She spun around as she heard a cough and relief rolled off her in waves as she spied the two aforementioned men.

"Do you remember anything at all Rukia?" The voice from the door made them spin around. Kisuke raised his hat at them as he and Yuroichi entered Ichigo's living room.

"Yeah." She nodded, swallowing heavily. "There was this... _thing_... a true monster, worse than the hollows." She shivered and unconsciously pulled the covers closer around herself. "I don't know how to describe it, it was horrible." She squeezed her eyelids together, the mere memory causing bile to rise in her throat. "And... I couldn't cut it... no matter what I did... I couldn't cut or hurt it in any way." A lone tear made its way down her cheek. That was when Renji realised that she was more shaken by the experience than she was letting on.

"What happened then?" Yuroichi asked gently, worried that the small soul reaper would burst into tears yet needing to know what exactly had happened.

Rukia looked up at Yuroichi, battling her own mental pain. "I'm not quite sure." she whispered quietly. "That thing picked me up and started strangling me and that was when..." she gasped as she spun around to look at Ichigo. "That was when Ichigo managed to manifest his powers again. I don't remember much. It was all so hazy. And then nii-san appeared and Kon and Chappy were trying to protect me I think."

The others watched her hesitant actions as she began to sit up. "And then I blacked out. I can't remember anything after that." Her voice grew stronger as she felt her energy building up again.

"Some strange person saved us." Their heads snapped as Ichigo blinked tiredly. "We, well at least I, don't know who she was or why she saved us. But she used a power that I've never seen or even heard of before."

Kisuke turned to Ichigo with interest clear in his dark eyes. "Awake now are we?" He smirked as Ichigo groaned.

"What does it look like Kisuke?" He muttered tiredly, obviously still not in his normal shape. Though his temper was definitely close to normal.

"So what happened after Rukia blacked out?" Yuroichi watched as Ichigo lay on the futon tiredly.

"This strange woman appeared. She defeated the demon in seconds. It was amazing really, the amount of power she had." He then scratched his head. "The memories are all hazy though. I can't really remember that well what happened. I remember her saying something but... what it was I don't know."

"It seems that this woman or this event has somehow affected your memories of what happened. It is really quite disturbing." Yuroichi said as they all gazed off into space, confused as to what they should think of the whole occasion.

~.~.~.~.~

Two more days passed before Uryu awoke from his coma and his reaction to what had happened was the same as the others before him. All that he could remember was fragmented, and all that he did remember clearly was what Ichigo had told them about days before.

To Kisuke and Yuroichi it was infuriating really. They had no definite leads as to what was going on or who the person or people were that had saved the others.

Byakuya's awakening brought around some new answers, but even more questions. He was able to remember what the demon and the woman had said, but what they had said was so cryptic that none of them knew what to do with it.

All they could do now was wait for whatever came next and hope that it would present more answers than it did questions. It seemed as if the peace of the past years had finally come to a definite end.


	18. Unanswered Questions

_ A/N: Hi again. I know that it has been forever since I have updated this story and while I could make up a million excuses, all I can do is apologise for my tardiness. I am really sorry.  
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_ A large thank you to **IchigoMoonCutter**, **quietreaper** and **Furionknight** for their reviews on the previous chapter. Thank you so much guys! :) And thank you to everyone else out there for their patience too and for supporting this story. Thanks again. :)  
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_ Anyway, a belated Merry Christmas to you all and a Happy New Year! On with the chapter! ;D  
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_ Please R&R  
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><p><em>Forever and Always<em>

_Chapter 18 - Unanswered Questions_

The past week had gone by surprisingly fast. After Uryu and Byakuya had awoken everyone tried to settle back into their normal routines of going to university, school, investigating or what not. The simple fact remained though that nobody had any definite answers to the questions that they all had and they wanted them. No, they needed them.

Their minds were all in so much turmoil that they were unable to properly concentrate on the normal things that happened in their lives and thus it had taken them all nearly a whole week to calm down enough to continue with everyday life.

As it was, it was a Sunday. And on this particular Sunday two people met in the park. Two people you wouldn't have expected to meet or sit on a park bench together as they were both immersed in their own thoughts. One was Byakuya Kuchiki. The other was Orihime Inoue.

"Good morning." Byakuya had greeted cordially before settling down on the bench.

"Good morning Captain Kuchiki." Orihime had responded with a warm smile before settling down on the bench herself. Both enjoyed the silence that the early hour in the park offered them and watched the sun rising above the horizon. Neither had been able to sleep particularily well, for two very different reasons.

"How are your injuries?" Orihime inquired, the more maternal and caring side of her taking charge as she peered over at the stoic captain of squad 6. Although this morning he didn't seem as emotionless as he usually was. In fact, one could observe a myriad of emotions travel through his eyes quite comfortably.

"Slowly getting better. Thank you for your concern." He was as polite as ever but Orihime could detect the sincerity in his voice as he thanked her for helping him heal.

"That's good to hear." She sighed with relief. After the incident of the past week she had felt quite depressed, especially since everyone else seemed so down too.

And so the two lapsed back into a comfortable silence, continuing to watch the sun rise and the world around them come to life.

Orihime was lost in her own thoughts. She really thought that she should tell the others about what she had done. But how could she? How could she tell them of something she had done two years ago now? She knew that they would all be angry. They had every right to be. But something was stopping her. Would they hurt him if they knew? Would they interrogate him if he knew something about the current case? She had already asked him but he had said that he didn't know anything. He had said that he had found the location of some people he used to know though who might know something about what was going on and that he would go and ask them if they knew something. She felt relieved at that but at the same time intrigued. Who were the people that he knew and how could they know something about this if even Urahara and Yuroichi and the Gotei 13 didn't know?

Which brought her back to her current problem. Whether or not to tell Ichigo, Uryu and the others about what she had done. She felt really bad about keeping it a secret but she knew at the time that she had to if she wanted him to stay alive and well.

She sighed heavily as she contorted her face in exasperation. She really hadn't known that life could be as hard as it was now when she had found out about the Soul Society and everything three years ago.

Byakuya found himself in a surprisingly similar situation. The incident from nearly two weeks back annoyed him in more ways than one. But that was not the reason why he was out of bed and wandering through the city at this time of day. No, that wasn't it. It was the fact that he was having nightmares each time he closed his eyes. If he had thought that they were bad before he was wrong. Now they were even worse.

Somehow the incident had sparked his brain into an overdrive and each time he closed his eyes he would not only see Ari's death again and again but he would also see the attack from nearly two weeks ago replay over and over in his mind. It increased his feeling of helplessness and it made him feel absolutely useless. And he hated feeling like that with an absolute passion.

Then there was the searing familiarity he felt each time he watched that mysterious person slay the creature in front of his eyes. It was as if those very moves were embedded into his soul from a long time gone. He had nearly been able to predict what he or she were about to do before they had done it and it frightened him. He was pretty sure that he didn't know anyone to that degree that he was able to know what they would do before they did it. He had known someone like that once, but it was a long time gone now. And the person in question was dead anyway.

And sleep evaded him on every turn. He was sorely tempted to just go to Kisuke Urahara and ask him for his most powerful sleeping draught so that he might be finally able to get some rest. Sadly his pride was making a final stand and he had the feeling that he would have to fall asleep in a lecture or while standing before he was able to convince himself that he needed that draught more than he needed his pride.

His tired sigh escaped his lips the same moment as Orihime's exasperated one escaped her own lips. Both got up, nodded to each other and went their seperate ways.

~.~.~.~.~

"Come on Ichigo, you can do it!" Rangiku's shouts from the sidelines had Ichigo's brows twitching in annoyance. Of course he would be able to do it. He just had to get back into shape first. And Captain Toushiro Hitsugaya didn't seem to be in the mood to go easy on him in any way. No, the shorter silver-haired captain had something on his mind and it seemed like he was taking it out on Ichigo during this mock battle between them.

Fact was that Ichigo hadn't used his zanpakuto in nearly two years and he felt sorely out of shape. For some reason Hichigo wasn't causing him any trouble either. In fact it seemed as if his inner hollow was trying to help him, something that was causing him no small amount of concern. He could still remember his encounter with him two nights back while he was sleeping.

_"While I would like to tell you what an idiot you are and how I would never allow you to be the king while I have to play the horse I do not have the time to do that." Hichigo looked at him pointedly, not even trying to hide his disgust at him while Ichigo adopted a fighting stance._

_"Then what do you want?" The day when he would trust his inner hollow not to stab him in the back at the first opportunity was still a long way off._

_"I follow the most basic of all instincts. I want to survive. And after that... 'incident'... I see that it will be of no use that we should fight over who is the king and who is the horse right now." His mouth curved up in a sadistic smile. "And it will be more fun to beat you when you are stronger rather than weak." And with that Hichigo vanished, leaving behind a very uneasy and disturbed Ichigo._

"Concentrate Ichigo Kurosaki!" Captain Hitsugaya's voice broke through Ichigo's recollections and he was barely able to protect himself against the slash from Hitsugaya's zanpakuto. No more words were spoken as the two jumped back breathing heavily, looking each other straight in the eye.

But while Ichigo thought that he was pretty out of shape, which admittedly he was, Captain Hitsugaya was amazed at how much Ichigo had actually managed to stay so strong without even being able to summon his soul reaper form, let alone sense it. Although he had always been pretty bad with the sensing part. But the small captain would not admit such a thing to Ichigo because he knew the young man might let it get to his head and he might not train as hard. Although he probably would because he knew that Aizen was somewhere out there to get him. Not one single person of their group was taking it easy at the moment. After having heard what Byakuya had recounted of the 'incident' it seemed like their worst fears were confirmed. Aizen had banded up with an even more dangerous enemy and right now they had no time to lean back and take it easy. They had to prepare for the inevitable. They had to prepare for the monster called Sosuke Aizen returning.

And so they had all split up into a schedule to train Ichigo and each other. They had found that the underground cave in Urahara's shop was becoming more and more useful as they could train simultaneously due to the immense size of the cave. Right at this moment Byakuya, Renji and supposedly Rangiku too, although she was doing more of a spectating thing right now, were training as well as per schedule.

Shaking all thoughts from his head he hardened his eyes and lifted his sword above his head in another attack position as he rushed forward as Ichigo did too. They could not risk losing against Aizen. They simply couldn't.

~.~.~.~.~

"So Kenny-chan, have you found any further clues on the captain yet?" Yachiru looked at her own captain with wide eyes. Kenpachi was able to detect things that others weren't, partially due to the fact that he didn't wield his zanpakuto like the others did. So when he had told her that he had smelt the scent of their former captain, or rather sensed her reiatsu, she had been incredibly excited since she knew that he wasn't wrong.

Their captain had been the one that had found the two of them on the streets of the Rukongai and had told them to join the Gotei 13 so that Kenpachi would be able to fight as much as he wanted as well as living a better life than the one they had previously had. She hadn't been a captain at the time, in fact, she had been in another squad entirely.

But still, even Yachiru had been surprised when Kenpachi had said that he would enter the Gotei 13 and that he would beat her. Yachiru had felt incredibly happy seeing him work towards that goal. He had then joined Squad 11 and she had become their captain two or three months later. He had of course tried to beat her instantly but she beat him instead thus earning his respect.

She was one of the few people that he had looked up to, Retsu Unohana being another amongst that small, small number. When she had died on the battlefield while he had been present Yachiru had known that he had blamed himself to an extent. She had become like an older sister or cousin to them, always caring for their well-being in their own way. He had immediately killed the man that had taken the position of captain after her, not seeing him fit to lead the squad that she had proudly led.

Few remembered their fondness for her but they hadn't forgotten her nor her death. The slightest chance that she was alive had let a small sort of hope spring up within them, causing them to look for her when they could.

There was just one slight problem that both of them either wanted to forget or were too oblivious to recognise.

"Haven't we seen this street before?" Kenpachi looked around himself at the bustling street, the people leaving a large circle of free air around him.

"I told you to go left Kenny and you went right!" Yachiru exclaimed, slightly annoyed at how he was ignoring her earlier question.

"But you said right!" Kenpachi wasn't amused.

"Did I?" Yachiru wondered and realised that she had. "Well I mean left Kenny, left!" She exclaimed quite happily, her mood having switched almost instantly because they were obviously looking for clues to the location of their past captain.

"Then say left, dammit. How am I supposed to know where we're going otherwise?" He glared up at her and she just smiled sweetly. It was already getting late and she was starting to get hungry.

"Kenny~ can we go eat?" She asked in a sugar sweet sing-song voice. Kenpachi knew that voice. It didn't bode well.

"Okay. But do you remember where the appartment is?" They looked around themselves and realised that they were on the wrong side of town.

"Straight ahead then left!" She sang happily as Kenpachi followed her instructions. They could hardly bash through walls in this world. It would only pull unwanted attention onto them. And while neither Kenpachi or Yachiru minded that, the others did which meant that they had told the two of them quite explicitely to _please_ not do that. Yachiru had agreed. Kenpachi had grumbled.

Needless to say it took them another two hours to get home.

~.~.~.~.~

"So let's see what facts we have so far." Kisuke Urahara peered at the people sitting at the table with him. For once the mood was absolutely somber, not a hint of humour or anything at all in that direction. It felt uncomfortable but there was nothing he could do about it. In this kind of situation there was nothing they could do but be serious.

Gathered around the table were Captain Jushiro Ukitake, Captain Shunsui Kyoraku, Captain Soi Fon and Yuroichi Shihoin. Standing further back was Tessai, calmly observing the whole gathering as Kisuke peered around at all of them. They had decided that as the eldest of them all, they would be the ones that would try and form a more concise battle plan, or any plan at all, before telling the others about their ideas. They had the most experience and thus they would probably be able to come up with something more effective. Byakuya was supposed to be present too but he had guard duty tonight and was thus not present.

"First and foremost, Aizen has escaped from prison. We don't know how he managed to do that or if someone helped him and even if people in the Soul Society know there is no way that we can currently reach them. Which brings us to our second problem. Our lack of communication with the other dimensions."

"Dimension_s_?" Shunsui asked, having a premonition that it wasn't only the Soul Society that they were unable to reach.

"Yes. Dimension_s_. We can't reach Hueco Mundo either. It's shut off from us just like the Soul Society is. It's like each and every dimension is now isolated." Kisuke didn't feel well about that. He had never even heard of dimensions not being able to communicate with each other or being shut off from one another before. Before this it had been pretty implausible.

"Which brings us to the actual passageways between the dimensions. You all mentioned that they were acting strange, being a blood red and having that strange creature within it chasing you. It almost seems as if you were set up and were actually quite lucky to come out of there alive if we consider that that creature was probably like the one that attacked the others several weeks back."

"I don't like that at all." Jushiro looked worried. An enemy that they couldn't even harm was more than just an enemy. It was a legitimate and most probably fatal threat to them all.

"None of us do." Soi Fon said harshly, her eyes betraying her unease. Yuroichi nodded.

"Assuming that this creature is of the same kind as one that Yuroichi has seen before," Kisuke noted the other's slight surprise at that but didn't elaborate. It was up to her whether or not she would tell them and whom she would tell. "Then we can say that they devour souls similar to hollows though apparently in a slightly more gruesome way." He smiled uneasily while Yuroichi looked pale at the thought.

He cleared his throat as the other's remained silent. "And according to what Captain Kuchiki and the other's heard that day, Aizen is in cahoots with these things which isn't good at all." He looked grim again. "We've never come across anything like them before, the data that we collected from that alley not being of much help since we cannot currently identify it. We should however assume that they came from another dimension altogether, one that we haven't come across before."

The others processed this slowly as they thought about the various possibilities this had to offer. Another dimension existing wasn't something that they had expected to find by coming to the World of the Living.

"What worries us though is that we have been unable to sense this dimension until now which makes us wonder why it is now that we are able to find out about it. And more importantly, what is Aizen planning. We know that he probably wants to kill Ichigo, Shinji and me. There's no question about that. We were the ones that were the main cause of his downfall two years ago. As the demon's targeting showed, he will probably go after Ichigo first, then me, and then Shinji. Since Shinji is in the Soul Society currently though as Captain of Squad 5 we cannot reach him and tell him about this. So all we can try to do now is attempt to figure out the rest with the limited resources that we have." Yuroichi looked around at each and every person present.

"So we wanted to know whether any of you had any ideas as to why this dimension is popping up now and not earlier or later." Kisuke stated calmly.

"Bad luck?" Shunsui offered with a small smile. Soi Fon glared at him.

"It was probably hidden until now." The others looked at the usually quiet Captain Ukitake. "I knew someone some time back who mentioned something of another dimension and some sort of seal." Shunsui looked at his friend in surprise while Jushiro looked away uncomfortably.

"And that person..." Yuroichi began.

"Is long dead." Shunsui interrupted rather harshly while Jushiro swallowed heavily. It was still a difficult topic for him to discuss. The others immediately went quiet.

"They mentioned that the seal would probably start weakening at some point for which they had to be prepared. It was pretty vague at the time and to be honest they never mentioned much about it. It was a pretty touchy topic for them." He smiled sadly while Shunsui put a hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

"So if we go on this theory and assume that this dimension was sealed away by someone then if the seal was weakening it would be logical why they would start to appear." Kisuke nodded, steering away from the obviously painful subject of someone's death.

"But then, how did Aizen manage to get in touch with them while he was stuck in prison?" Yuroichi queried while furrowing her brows in confusion. " He shouldn't be even able to talk let alone communicate in some other fashion." She looked back up at the others.

"There might be a traitor somewhere." Soi Fon said softly, not liking the thought of another traitor at all.

"Not again." Jushiro breathed softly.

"Let's hope that it's not that." Shunsui said, his eyes hard. "Otherwise those back home in the Soul Society might be in more trouble than we are here." The others agreed with him before attempting to figure out more by speculation.

~.~.~.~.~

Crossing the road he stared at the tall and elegant building in front of him. It hadn't been that long since he had been in Karakura Town, compared to other places where he hadn't been much longer. He had been glad when the university he had been at in another town had agreed to transfer him to this university. He had been insanely glad to see Orihime again.

But then he had found out about what was going on. He had heard about Aizen's escape from prison and the current gathering of shinigami in this town. Which in itself was quite bad since they would probably kill him should they know that he was still alive. Orihime would also be in quite a lot of trouble should someone find out how she had helped him.

It had taken him the whole of the past two years to become used to this world and yet he still had many things to learn. He had also spent the last couple of years searching for _them_, knowing that they would probably be somewhere close by.

And he had finally found them. Walking into the building and telling the guard that he was visiting someone he walked to the elevator and waited for it to arrive on the ground floor so that it could take him up to the people he had sought after for so long.

He had his suspicions and he knew that they were probably right but he also knew that only they could confirm whether they were right and wrong. And anyway, it had been such a long time since they had seen each other, he was happy that this might be the reunion that he had been waiting so long for, consciously and subconsciously.

Stepping into the elevator and patiently waiting for it to drive up to the floor that he had entered he smiled softly. It wouldn't be long now. Only a couple more minutes and he would be able to see them all again.

Stopping in front of the door he inhaled a deep breath. Despite his calm exterior, his interior self was in utter turmoil. Well, there was nothing he could do about it now anyway. Taking one last breath he plucked up his courage and rang the doorbell, waiting for it to open.

And when it did, seeing their faces again made him feel like he had finally returned home.


	19. Other Dimensions

_ A/N: Happy New Year everyone! I hope that the new year brings all the best to you out there. :)  
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_ Thank you to **IchigoMoonCutter** for your review on the previous chapter! ;) and I'm sorry but you won't find out who that person was quite yet... :P ;)  
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_ Anyway, on with the chapter and all the best to you all once more!  
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_ Please R&R  
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><p><em>Forever and Always<em>

_Chapter 19 - Other Dimensions_

"Have you heard anything from the World of the Living?" Head Captain Genryusai Shigekuni Yamamoto looked at his lieutenant who shook his head ruefully.

"We haven't heard anything from them since they went off to the World of the Living a couple of weeks back. After that incident where the tunnels nearly collapsed we have been pretty isolated." Choujirou Sasakibe looked at the worried visage of his captain. This lack of communication was turning out to be quite the problem considering the information that they had stumbled upon last week which the others really should be told about.

"How is Captain Kurotsuchi's research coming along?" Yamamoto continued walking back to the Squad 1 barracks purposefully.

"He says that he has stumbled across something quite interesting and will report to you of those findings very soon." Sasakibe replied, keeping up with his aging captains surprisingly quick step. The recent turn of events bothered his captain more than he was letting on and he knew that he was itching to recapture Aizen and imprison him once more. Yamamoto hated people who betrayed others and since Aizen had not only betrayed anyone but the whole of Soul Society, Yamamoto felt ready to sacrifice his own life should that be needed to bring the traitor to pay for his heinious crimes.

"How soon?" Yamamoto looked back at Sasakibe who was walking slightly behind him out of respect as he always did.

"Probably right now." Sasakibe saw one of the men who served underneath them in Squad 1 standing at the door, waiting for them to arrive. Which meant one of two things. Either they had a visitor or a pretty important message.

"Good." Both hurried along, wanting to know what the other captain had found out. Their subordinate greeted them quietly before leading the way to one of the reception rooms. That confirmed their suspicions that Captain Kurotsuchi had come to tell them about what he had found.

"Good day Yamamoto-sutaichou." Captain Kurotsuchi stood up from where he had been sitting and bowed at the Captain Commander who returned the greeting before all of them sat down again to discuss what had to be discussed.

"So what did you find?" Yamamoto looked inqiringly at the Captain of Squad 12.

"Something very interesting." Kurotsuchi smiled a bit, showing his delight at finding something new to research. "And I believe that it may be tied in to what we found last week." The two others perked up at that, listening to closely to the rather strange captain.

"Last week we found out that someone else helped Aizen escape from the cell by forming a passageway between the cell and somewhere else. We have also found some reiatsu in the cell showing that other people were present. The results from our experiments have showed that this reiatsu belonged to a young woman and a slightly older man. We cannot say who they are since their reiatsu is not registered in any of our databanks." Kurotsuchi furrowed his brow in annoyance, he hated not knowing something.

"However, this reiatsu also shows that the people that came to aid Aizen's escape did not come from any dimension that we have known so far." Yamamoto's eyes opened at that statement, he had been simply listening up until now.

"What do you mean, another dimension?" Sasakibe enquired further. Kurotsuchi shot him a slightly sour look at being interrupted.

"The reiatsu particles of a person are normally attached to the particles of the dimension that they came from. They are minute so it takes some time to distinguish them when we investigate the particles closer. The particles of these two people however have other particles attached to them that we cannot identify, meaning that there is another dimension out there that we haven't ever come across before, or if we have, it isn't one that has been recorder thus far." Kurotsuchi continued to explain.

"Have you found out anything more partaining to the two people who aided that traitor's escape?" Yamamoto asked, feeling that the proud captain of Squad 12 had even more to say.

"Yes." Kurotsuchi nodded. "Neither were shown to be particularily strong in terms of how concentrated and high their reiatsu remains were. They have what I would presume to be the levels of a fourth or fifth seat in one of our squads. We are still investigating further though since their reiatsu is slightly different to the ones that we shinigami normally have." Yamamoto nodded his approval at that.

Kurotsuchi continued his report. "We also know that they were not the ones to open and close the portal to the cell that should have been able to repel something like that. We found traces of another substance, slime-like in consistence, on the floor of the cell which is probably from the creature that actually opened and closed the portal."

"But how does that show that they weren't the ones to manage the portal?" Sasakibe asked, not liking how there were so many unknowns in the whole equation that was Aizen's miraculous escape.

"Because to maintain such a portal in a cell as well protected as Aizen's you would have to actually maintain the portal from either inside the passageway or from the other dimension or place you are coming from since once the portal closes the alarm would be activated that someone has entered the cell which happened immediately once the portal did close. That was when the guards realised that something was wrong and checked but Aizen was already gone. Had they closed and then reopened the portal the escape alarm should have gone off, not the intrusion alarm." Kurotsuchi tried to explain calmly. He wasn't known for his patience after all and he hated having to explain each and every minute detail of something that he conceived as logical.

"And like I said before, the people who helped Aizen escape had a potential of fourth or fifth seat strength, to maintain a portal to a _dimensional_ passageway of all things would require at least the level of a lieutenant."

"So they only helped transport Aizen out?" Yamamoto asked, his calm mask never breaking.

"Yes, but we also found something else that was rather interesting. As you know we monitor all the cells through cameras too. Quite a nice invention by those humans if I might add." He grinned as he pulled out something that looked like a tape. "The people who helped Aizen escape weren't stupid, they actually knew quite a lot about how the prison worked and everything since they timed his escape when a shift of guards occured. Which makes me quite suspicious as to how they knew that but more on that later. Look at this please." Kurotsuchi pulled out a monitor from his haori and put the small casette into the entrance at the bottom of the screen. The surveillance video began to play.

"See, it just looks like nothing is happening, as if everything is alright." He pointed at the nearly lifeless figure of Aizen. Without food the traitorous captain had lost a significant amount of weight and looked quite ragged on the monitor. They all knew that he shouldn't even be able to move. Suddenly Aizen was gone and the screen showed a red light blinking in the corners and guards opening the cell and rushing in when they saw that no-one was there.

"They blocked any coverage of themselves quite nicely through some kind of filtering technique but they were obviously not very well acquainted with this kind of technology which shows that they were neither from the World of the Living nor the Soul Society." Kurotsuchi pressed some buttons at the sides. "I put it through several filters and analysed everything and have managed to be able to see past the screen that they put in front of the lense.

The image was still slightly hazy but Yamamoto and Sasakibe leaned forward slightly to observe what was happening in the cell. Something that looked rather like a black hole appeared on the wall to the left and they saw two figures peering out before turning back and saying something to someone further back which wasn't registered by the camera that was too far away.

A young woman stepped into the room and made a motion in the direction of the cameras which was probably her installing the screen by some sort of spell. The woman looked like she was in her late teens, but still quite young. She was wearing a uniform that wasn't known to them, being a dark lavender with a small gold emblem in the corner.

"What is that sign on her breast?" Sasakibe asked Kurotsuchi without taking his eyes off of the screen.

"I presume that it is the organisation that the woman is from since the man that will appear in a second wears a similar uniform with the same sign on his breast too." Kurotsuchi kept his explanation short, also watching the scene unfolding before their eyes.

The woman made a gesture with her hand and another man stepped out of the hole into the room. Like Kurotsuchi had said he wore a similar dark lavender uniform with the same sign on his breast.

"It isn't from any known organisation?" Yamamoto asked quietly. Kurotsuchi shook his head.

"No, and we have also gone through all the data we have from the World of the Living. It matches up with nothing that we know so far." Both Captain Commander and Lieutenant nodded as they recieved that information. They had expected as much. Captain Kurotsuchi was a pretty thorough and precise person after all when it came to information gathering and investigating.

They continued to watch the screen. The woman and the man went forth to the imprisoned Aizen and the man lifted his head so that the former Captain of Squad 5 could look them straight in the eyes since he himself was unable to move.

"You're the former Captain Aizen of Squad 5?" The woman asked quietly, probably knowing that despite the cameras not being able to pick up the sound due to the screen that she had placed in front of them, the guards patrolling the area might still be able to.

His eyes must have shown that he said yes since she nodded briefly to the other man before turning back around to say something to someone in the hole.

"We're from somewhere else and we've come to get you out of here since our boss needs you for his plans." The man said briefly.

"We have to hurry. The seal is still strong. We won't be able to leave in a minute or so." The woman said quietly and quickly.

"Okay." The man nodded at her. "We're going to explain more once we get back to where we come from. We don't have enough time left to explain any more right now." The man took something that looked like a small sword from his side and sliced through the bindings that had held Aizen firmly in place until now."

"He was able to simply destroy those bindings?" Yamamoto looked over at Kurotsuchi, raising his eyebrows. Those bindings had been particularily strong bakudo spells meant to last for a good couple thousand years before having to be renewed.

"That sword was made from the same metal or zanpakuto's are but was also enforced with a series of quite aggressive spells. That was how we were able to get the man's reiatsu." Kurotsuchi mentioned nearly like it was simply a side note. Yamamoto nodded before turning back to the screen. Of course, those bakudo bindings were only especially strong against Aizen himself trying to break free. None of them had really anticipated someone from the outside cutting through them.

The woman rushed over as Aizen began to crumple into a heap since he was unable to support himself with his drastically weakened strength. Both supported him as they carried him towards the black hole and when they got close to it a large deformed hand reached out, something dripping off of it onto the floor. Sasakibe presumed that this was the slime-like consistence that had been found on the floor of the cell that Captain Kurotsuchi had mentioned earlier.

The people were obviously in a hurry due to the 'seal' that they had mentioned earlier and didn't really register that they had left behind evidence to their being there. The woman quickly made a sign for a spell towards the two cameras before entering the hole after the man had already left, following Aizen who had been lifted in by the other person or creature still in there.

And then the haziness vanished from the camera and they were able to see clearly again and the alarm immediately went off. Kurotsuchi turned off the device and put it back in his haori.

"And due to that last spell by the woman we were able to get her reiatsu as well. I've already had other members of my squad put out sensors throughout the Soul Society to detect those two reiatsus as well as Aizen's, should any of them try to return." Yamamoto nodded his approval to that. In a way it was good that the two had been so careless towards the end. They now had some clues with which they could work.

"That's good." He commented and Kurotsuchi nodded his head at the verbal approval.

"They mentioned a 'seal'. Do you know what that could have meant?" Sasakibe asked the blue-haired captain, having taken note of it before.

"No. We haven't found anything on that yet." Kurotsuchi growled slightly. It annoyed him to no end that absolutely nothing could be found on this so called seal. "It's probably what's kept this dimension from being found so far." He said after a couple of seconds.

"Is that all so far?" Yamamoto queried.

"Yes." That was all he had found out so far after all.

"Then please inform us in case you should find out any more." With that Kurotsuchi knew that he was being dismissed.

"Yes, sir." He bowed his head and left the room to go back to his own barracks to continue with his enquiry. He still had to find a way with which they would be able to communicate with the World of the Living and tell them of their findings. He suddenly remembered something and turned back around. Yamamoto and Sasakibe looked up in surprise when they saw him re-enter the room after just having left it.

"What is it Captain Kurotsuchi?" Sasakibe asked in place of his captain.

"There was something I forgot to mentio before, Lieutenant." He replied.

"What is it?" Yamamoto asked.

"It's how these foreign people knew so much about the prison and its schedules sutaichou." He began. "On the day that Aizen vanished, one of the guards failed to turn up for work and he was found dead in his appartment a couple of days ago. We've also found traces of foreign substances on him. The same as the ones attached to the reiatsu of the two intruders." Yamamoto opened his eyes fully at that.

"A traitor?" The word that he hated most left his mouth.

"Most probably." Kurotsuchi replied. "The cause of death is a wound made by a hollow. And since we haven't had any hollows in the Seretei he was probably killed in the World of the Living or Hueco Mundo. But since we have been unable to contact and reach the World of the Living we think that he was killed in Hueco Mundo. He probably fled there before his actions could be found out."

"But then why was he in his appartment?" Sasakibe asked quietly, feeling his blood run cold at the thought of someone being murdered.

"He was probably returned there by the ones who also took Aizen." Kurotsuchi replied. "We're still looking into it though. It seems as if information about the schedules and the prison leaked to them through him though."

"Thank you for informing us of that Captain." Yamamoto thanked him.

Kurotsuchi bowed his head at the Captain Commander once more before turning around and leaving the room once more. Once he was gone, Yamamoto sank further into the chair and felt his age descend upon him.

"This could get quite messy." Sasakibe said, breaking the silence after a couple of minutes.

"Yes." His captain responded quietly. "It probably will. This fragile peace felt like it would come to an end soon anyway." He sounded tired, incredibly so.

"I wish it could have lasted longer." Sasakibe looked outside the window, his thoughts lost in the circumstances that surrounded Aizen's escape. This appeared to be something much bigger than initially thought.

He took his Captain's lasting silence as an agreement to his previous statement as both continued to stare off into space, lost in their own thoughts.

~.~.~.~.~

"And he was returned to his appartment properly before we got cut off again?" The younger woman looked up at the older man and he nodded his head at her question.

"Yup." He responded, popping the 'p'. "After having those hollows go after him in Hueco Mundo, our team returned him to the Soul Society to have it seem like he was killed by one there."

"They might get suspicious though." She said after a couple of seconds while continuing to walk down the long corridors that made up this mansion.

"They probably already are. I'm pretty sure that we left behind something or the other in that cell but I don't think that they'll be able to do anything with that information." The young man looked pretty smug with himself.

"Don't be too arrogant Cain. I did that last spell in a hurry. I might have made a mistake." The younger woman called Hina gritted her teeth.

"And you're way too over-achieving Hina. We probably didn't make a mistake. And anyway, just like we're restricted by this stupid seal, the others are too. They won't be able to find us." Cain normally had a pretty optimistic attitude towards things. Hina had a pretty pessimistic one. They balanced each other out.

"There's nothing wrong with being too careful. You know how my uncle is." Hina let her chestnut hair out of its tight ponytail and she let the locks cascade down her back.

"You're too careful. That's why we always take ages to get things done. And you know that we were lucky to even make it out of that cell. A couple of seconds longer and the passageway would have collapsed." Cain mentioned. He hated the stupid seal that shut them off from the rest of the world and the other dimensions.

"Yeah, yeah." Hina waved her hand dismissevely and both of them came to a halt in front of the door that lead to the main room of this mansion. The room where their supervisor and commander always resided in. Cain shook his head as he watched Hina tentatively knock at the door. She had such a strong personality which clashed with his own, but once it came to members of her family, she grew meek and submissive. He hated it when she acted like that.

"Come in." The gravelly voice from inside answered her knocks and the doors swung open as the guards pushed them.

"Uncle." Hina bowed her head softly before him before standing back up straight.

"Commander Touo." Cain said with respect. Despite his dislike for the man, he respected his strength and leadership skills.

"How is he doing?" The tall man sitting in his seat in front of them cut straight to the chase. He had never been one to beat around the bush.

"He is recovering." Cain said quickly, not wanting Hina to be the one to answer him since it would be long-winded and pathetically weak. "He's eating everything we give him and he is slowly recovering his strength. He should be ready to meet with you soon, sir." He bowed at the end of his brief report.

"That is good. Anything else." The man in front od them asked once more.

"Our spy has been killed by the hollows in Hueco Mundo, just like you ordered uncle, and our team has returned him back to the Soul Society in the brief window we had a couple of days ago." Hina answered this time, wanting to impress her uncle as always.

"Thank you." He graced his niece with a soft smile. "You may leave." Both of them bowed once more to the intimidating man before turning around and leaving.

Once outside, Cain breathed in heavily, glad to have left the stifling air of the commanding room. While he knew that they had an alliance with the demons and that is was necessary for their success, he still couldn't stand the stench of the creatures. And the ones in that room still had the horrible smell that was associated with their species.

"How was your last mission?" Both turned around to face Hina's older sister, Chieko, who had heard that they had returned and had come to meet them.

"Good. We accomplished everything that we had to." Cain answered instead of Hina. He knew that the two sisters had had some sort of spat recently and he wanted to avoid a fight as of the moment. Travelling around so much and the recent missions had tired him out. He wanted to get some rest before trying to act as a mediator between the two sisters.

"That's good to hear. Nice to have you two back." She said sharply and turned back around, leaving just as quickly as she had come. Hina muttered some nasty stuff under her breath before marching off into the opposite direction, Cain closely following her.

Some things never changed.


	20. Communication

_ A/N: Not much to say really apart from thanking you all for the continued support for this story! :)  
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_ Please R&R  
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><p><em>Forever and Always<em>

_Chapter 20 - Communication_

"Are you okay Ichigo?" Ichigo turned his head to look over at Orihime who was looking at him with quite a fair amount of worry.

"Mhmm." He mumbled back, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes with the back of his hand. The last two weeks had been pretty tiring for him, rushing from his lectures to his part-time job to training with the others from the Gotei 13 and then back home. All in all he hadn't had a moment where he had just sat down to relax a bit, catching sleep where it came.

Which was what he had been doing although he should be paying attention to what Kisuke and Yuroichi were trying to tell him and the others gathered here. The attack on them was now nearly three weeks back and he had to say that it had certainly made everyone become more tense and alert than before.

His eyelids were just beginning to droop again when he felt a sharp pain in his left leg. Yelping slightly he shot up, glaring at Rukia in the process since he knew that only she would have the audacity to kick him like that. No one else ever did.

Kisuke looked at Ichigo glaring at Rukia in amusement. The way that those two interacted never failed to amaze him. He immediately also looked over to Byakuya to see what he thought of the whole interaction but was surprised to see the usually so proud captain with his eyes closed as he leaned against the wall behind him.

Was he sleeping?

The others noticed his temporary silence and looked over to where he was quite blatantly staring. Yuroichi had to stifle a giggle behind her hands as she saw the sleeping face of Byakuya Kuchiki. It was such a rare sight to see and to be honest, this was the first time that she had seen him do something like this. Even as a child when she had helped teach him he had never allowed himself something that exposed his vulnerability like this.

Rukia and Renji were the ones most affected by this strange sight. Rukia looked simply shocked at seeing her adoptive brother in such a state while Renji's mouth was actually hanging open in wonder. After serving under Byakuya Kuchiki for twenty to thirty years he had never seen his captain as exposed as he had been able to in the past couple of weeks.

None of them quite dared to go closer to him and to try and wake him up. You know what they said, better let sleeping dragons rest.

Ichigo was also staring at Byakuya quite openly in surprise. Yuroichi held back another chuckle, remembering how she had seen him try his hardest not to doze off during this meeting but failing quite spectacularly. She supposed that they all were quite tired and hadn't been getting as much sleep as they were supposed to.

Suddenly Byakuya's brows furrowed and it seemed like he muttered something while still asleep, unaware of how everyone was leaning in to hear the words that were being uttered by the normally so reserved captain.

His expression grew more pained and they all looked up in surprise when Jushiro got up and walked over to him to try and gently shake him awake. At first the sleeping captain didn't respond but after a couple of seconds of slightly stronger shaking by the other captain he awoke with surprise.

"How long haven't you been sleeping properly Byakuya?" Jushiro asked gently, having an inkling as to why the other man was having trouble sleeping.

Byakuya gazed around him in a gaze, his mind obviously not back to the reality of things while his body already was. He had a broken expression on his face, and pain was written in his eyes. Seeing so much emotion from the cold captain of Squad 6 stunned the others into silence.

"Byakuya?" Jushiro now asked with worry obviously laced into his voice. "Captain Kuchiki?" Those two words seemed to remind Byakuya where he was and he shook his head slightly, appearing to try and get rid of his fatigue.

"Yes." He answered, his expressions returning to normal. Rukia felt relief flood her, she simply didn't know how she would have reacted if he had remained like that.

"I was asking how long it had been since you had a proper night's rest." Jushiro repeated, feeling the need to know.

"A very long time." Byakuya muttered softly, feeling the need to be honest to the other captain, but not wanting to tell him just how long sleep had been evading him.

"How long?" Jushiro let his concern show plainly on his face.

"Do you want a sleeping draught to help you?" Kisuke asked, feeling that in this moment in time it would be wrong to try and tease the other captain about his lack of sleep.

"Yes. That would be greatly appreciated." Byakuya nodded regally, having fully returned to his normal self.

"Well why don't we all try to get a proper night's rest for once then, eh?" Kisuke returned to his more joking manner as he grinned around at the rest of them. "'Cause if we don't rest we'll only hinder ourselves, won't we Ichigo?" He grinned at the orange-haired daiko who glared back at him, both of them remembering the time three years ago when Kisuke had pushed Ichigo to his absolute limits, not even allowing him to rest.

"Yeah, yeah." He muttered under his breath, knowing that the rest would probably do him a whole lot of good. He was about to fall back asleep anyway and to be honest it looked like Chad had been quietly napping to himself without getting caught up until now. Damn him for being able to look like he was still awake while napping. And being a normally quiet person, people wouldn't even notice that. Ichigo muttered to himself in annoyance.

"It'll probably do us all some good." Orihime agreed, noting that practically everyone looked like they deserved a bit more sleep. They had all been working and training overtime after all. "And we have the christmas holidays in one week, I can't wait for them to start." She looked absolutely ecstatic as she thought about all the shopping and decorating that she would be able to do once the beloved season started.

Rukia and Uryu wondered how she was able to be so energetic at this time of night. They had had to wait for Ichigo to come off of his shift too, which had ended at nine, so it was now half past ten, a time where they normally already wanted to be in bed.

"We'll try and have a meeting next weekend then." Kisuke said as he got up to go and get the sleeping draught for Byakuya. "Have a good week guys!" He grinned at them all and they all said their farewells before leaving, with only Jushiro and Byakuya left behind in the shop while Shunsui waited outside for his friend to join him. They had managed to talk about most of what they had wanted to talk about. They were still trying to get in touch with the rest of the Gotei 13 in the Soul Society but so far to no avail.

"So how long have you really been unable to sleep properly Byakuya?" Jushiro asked once everyone but the two of them were gone. Byakuya sighed, unwanting to tell him the truth but nevertheless feeling the need to do exactly that.

"Ever since she died." He said quietly, his eyes showing his unease and hurt.

"That long?" Jushiro felt as if the air had been knocked out of his lungs.

"It was better for some time, I got more sleep, well normal amounts anyway but since coming here they've been getting worse." He said quietly feeling relieved when Kisuke entered the room once more with the much anticipated sleeping draught.

"Thank you." He nodded at Kisuke, a rare and small smile on his face. "Goodnight Captain Ukitake, Urahara." He nodded at the two of them before getting up and leaving the room, hoping that tonight he would be able to get some sleep.

"Ever since who died?" Kisuke asked once Byakuya had left.

"You eavesdropped?" Jushiro turned to Kisuke with disapproval on his face.

"Can't say that he's the only one guilty of it." Shunsui entered the room through the other door, a sheepish grin on his face.

"You too Shunsui?" Jushiro looked more exasperated than annoyed.

"Well when do you ever see Byakuya Kuchiki falling asleep while you're talking to him?" Kisuke grinned at the other two, his eyes peeking out from underneath his hat.

"You're right." Jushiro sighed in resignation.

"So who's she?" Kisuke asked once more.

"My sister." Jushiro said quietly, a sad look entering his eyes. "She died roughly six decades ago, long after you'd already left the Soul Society." He inclined his head towards Kisuke.

"That long eh?" Shunsui looked out through the door through which Byakuya had left.

"Her death hit him pretty hard." His friend said with a helpless shrug of the shoulders.

"Were they close?" Kisuke asked, never having known the sister of Jushiro properly.

"Oh yes. Real close." Shunsui's eyes sparkled mischievously while Jushiro looked at him in pure exasperation.

"They were partners, friends. Of course they were close." Jushiro had noted the slightly more suggestive undertone of his friend's voice.

"So close that even though she became the captain of another squad that they still met up each day to 'talk'." He wiggled his eyebrows and Kisuke laughed at the action.

"We are not entering that territory my friend. No way." Jushiro said darkly, an undeterminable expression playing on his face.

"Sister complex kicking in! SOS, we need a doctor here!" Shunsui laughed also as Jushiro practically glared daggers at him.

"They were friends, no more and no less." He said with a huff, getting up and stalking out of the room, throwing a quick goodbye to Kisuke who looked like he was rolling on the floor with laughter at their interaction. He knew that there had been more to them than that but he wasn't going to go and tell Shunsui that he suspected that there had been more than appeared to the naked eye. He would never let him live that down.

"Says he." Shunsui muttered to Kisuke conspiratorially.

"Shunsui!" Jushiro's annoyed shout came from outside.

"Coming!" His friend called, still chuckling at the slightly childish behaviour that the other was displaying. "Bye Kisuke, see you soon!" He waved goodbye to the other man who grinned up at him from the floor and waved to him until he was gone from sight.

"Interesting. Very interesting indeed." Kisuke said with a broad grin, feeling rather pleased about having found out something new about the usually so distant captain of Squad 6.

~.~.~.~.~

"Hi." Nel opened the door to flash a brilliant smile at her cousin. When he had turned up on Ari's doorstep one and a half weeks ago, quite out of the blue, they had all been stunned into silence. Of course they had all been searching for him too, but for him to find them first and come to them as well was quite surprising in itself.

For some bizarre reason however they had been unable to catch up though. Despite wanting to stay and talk to the friend that she hadn't seen in quite a long time, Ari had had to go and rush to her work at the restaurant so she had had to go away practically immediately. Grimmjow and Nel had started talking to him but then some weird alarm had gone off on Grimmjow's phone and he had only heard something along the lines of 'Operation Avoidance' before the two of them had taken off so they had agreed to meet again today to talk.

"Hi." He graced her with a small smile as he stepped into the house. Just when he thought he was going to be safe from her, she attacked him by hugging him so tightly that he thought his ribcage was going to crack.

"Nel... you're... air... can't breathe..." He managed to choke out as she continued to hug him tight.

"Nel, I think you're strangling him." Grimmjow's amused voice came from one of the chairs that were set up in the living room.

"Oh my god. I'm so sorry Ulquiorra. It's just... I haven't seen in you in such a long time... and... I'm just so happy to see you..." Tears started to form in her eyes as she began to bawl and Grimmjow and him looked at each other in panic as they tried to calm her down.

"I leave the room for barely a minute and you already manage to make her cry. It seems like you guys haven't changed at all." Ari stood in the door, leaning against the frame quite casually while Grimmjow shot her an annoyed look.

"It's not my fault she's so bloody emotional." He shot back. Ulquiorra looked at him in amusement, those twins sure hadn't changed either.

"Who's emotional?" Nel asked angrily, her mood doing an abrupt swing causing Grimmjow to grow panicked once more.

"Emotional? Who said you were emotional?" He looked at the other two, praying for help from them with his eyes.

"You dug your own grave my friend." Ulquiorra patted him on his shoulder in sympathy as he went past the squabbling pair to sit down in another chair. Ari chuckled softly and then went to join him, hugging him tightly herself before settling in another chair.

"So tell us Ulquiorra, what happened? Last I heard from those two idiots was that you'd been killed by Ichigo Kurosaki." Ari effectively broke up the mini-fight between the other two by saying this and they turned back around to face him, the reason behind their squabble already forgotten.

"Well, in essence I did die." Ulquiorra stated rather calmly, causing the other's to look at him in confusion. "But, I didn't really stay dead for long. Probably just a couple of minutes at most. My soul didn't even move on like it usually does."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Grimmjow asked him.

"Well... you know Orihime Inoue?" They all nodded their assent. "She has this power... and well she used her healing powers to stop me from dieing."

"Wait a second... what do you mean she stopped you from dieing?" Nel held up her hand to stop her cousin's narration.

"Her powers of healing aren't healing as we know it. They're more like... reversing the damage." Ulquiorra tried to explain, finding it quite hard to do so.

"So... she basically reversed your death if we look at it in its simplest form." Ari stated while peering at him quizzically.

"Yes." Ulquiorra sighed. "Because it was while my soul was still in the area where I'd started to dissolve, she was able to reverse the change of me dieing and pull me back before I entered the cycle of rebirth."

"But weren't Ichigo and Uryu in the area as well?" From what Grimmjow remembered, that was how it had been. Not that he'd been there himself. He'd just heard of it through Nel.

"Yes, which was why she hid me there, in Hueco Mundo I mean, and left with the others first. She then later came back to Hueco Mundo, maybe a couple of hours later, under the pretense that she had dropped a part of her clips there while the others had been fighting."

"So does anyone else know that you're still alive?" Ari asked what she deemed to be the most important matter at the moment.

"No, I don't think so. But Kisuke Urahara may have his suspicions." Ulquiorra replied. "They'd probably already have come after me or questioned Orihime if they thought that it was so."

"True." Grimmjow muttered. It wasn't like the Soul Society to leave something like a free espada unattended to. It simply wasn't like them. Although they had had their hands full with Aizen at the time.

"Which reminds me. Why do you all look like you do?" Ulquiorra asked them, causing Nel to grin at him.

"It's this invention that Ari made. It alters our appearances for roughly two weeks before we need to go into it again so that nobody recognises us. Cool, isn't it?" She grinned as she twirled around, causing her caramel locks to dance.

"It is quite practical." Ulquiorra agreed.

"You should probably go into it yourself so that the chances of you being recognised are lower. It also hides your spiritual pressure, so you don't have to worry about doing that yourself." Ari smiled at him, pride at herself for having made something like that shining in her eyes.

"I will do so, later on." Ulquiorra smiled back at her. "But how have you all been? I remember Grimmjow and Nel being with me in Hueco Mundo, but not the whole time. What about you Ari?" He looked at her inquisitively, truly wondering what she had been doing the last two or three centuries.

"Well you remember how we split up back then, with me and Grimmjow going into the Soul Society and you and Nel going to Hueco Mundo to search for Toushiro." Ulquiorra nodded, yes he did remember them splitting up to look for Grimmjow's and Ari's younger brother. That had been the initial cause for them to enter those two worlds anyway.

"Well, Grimmjow and I lived in the Rukongai for a bit of time before we got adopted into the Ukitake household." Ari continued with her narrative.

"Wait, as in Jushiro Ukitake, Captain of Squad 13?" Ulquiorra asked. Grimmjow nodded in assent.

"Yup. As in Jushiro Ukitake of Squad 13. Although he wasn't captain at the time, he left for the Academy two months after we joined the family. We went along with him. You know how much we dislike nobles and all that crap that you have to put up with in those families." Grimmjow smirked at his friend who just rolled his eyes.

"Well, we joined the academy too eventually about a century ago and then we just lived life as it came I guess." Ari shrugged casually but Ulquiorra could recognise a certain pain in her eyes. "Grimmjow was killed about seventy-five years ago and his soul re-manifested itself in Hueco Mundo. I remained in the Soul Society and then got killed by one of Aizen's experiments roughly sixty years ago. My soul then manifested itself in this world and I've been living here since, although I've only lived in Karakura Town for about five years, moving around the place before that." She smiled wanly at him when a phone suddenly went off, startling them all. Ari excused herself as she went into the kitchen to take the call.

"What happened to her?" Ulquiorra asked as soon as she had left the room.

"She got pretty integrated into the life in the Soul Society. She also got pretty attached. Leaving it was pretty painful for her." Grimmjow looked out of the window with a grim expression on his face.

"We'll explain more to you later." Nel said with a sad smile while Ulquiorra nodded, knowing that they would probably explain it in further detail once Ari was off somewhere else. It was one of the most painful things that came along with their lives. The constantly having to leave others behind and moving on to other dimensions.

He could tell anyone from experience that having a practically eternal life sucked as hell.


	21. A Good Mood

_A/N: Thank you to **Furionknight** for their review on chapter 20! :)  
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_ Not all that much to say really except that the pace will begin to pick up soon, after the next couple of chapters which should hopefully begin to explain quite a few things.  
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_ Please RxExR!  
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><p><em>Forever and Always<em>

_Chapter 21 - A Good Mood_

"But I made a promise to him Uryu, and promises have to be held." Orihime said, feeling slightly distressed. She had promised Ulquiorra that she would go and pick him up before taking him to the restaurant with her and introducing him as her boyfriend to the others. He had asked her out a week ago and she had been practically ecstatic when he had, but he had also said that she should try and keep as little secrets from her friends as possible.

She had told him that they might recognise him and that they then might hurt him but he had told her not to worry and after seeing him after his 'make-over' as she referred to it, she had to say that she wasn't that worried anymore. His black hair had become a caramel blonde and she had to say he looked quite handsome in it. While he had lost his hollow hole when he had come over to this world two years ago, he had still had the tattooes on his face but now even those were gone and if she hadn't known it was him, she wouldn't have recognised him at all.

But now there was just one teensy problem. Uryu was refusing to let her go to go and pick him up. Why, she wasn't exactly sure. But it was starting to get on her nerves that everyone around her was treating her like some fragile vase that couldn't even take care of itself. She had trained throughout the last three weeks like the rest of them. In fact, she had never even stopped training, even after Aizen had been defeated. But no, the others wouldn't even let her go out on her own since that incident so she had had to take to sneaking out like some criminal, which, quite frankly, was starting to do a bit more than just get on her nerves.

"I'm fine Uryu. But he doesn't know where we're meeting up and I want to go and get him so that we can celebrate the start of the christmas break with everyone!" Annoyance was starting to leak into her voice as she pulled her arm out of Uryu's grasp. "And I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself!" She snapped and tried to ignore the surprised looks of Tatsuki and the others as she began to walk towards the door.

She was eighteen years of age for god's sake! She could pretty damn well take care of herself! She wasn't the inexperienced person she had been three years ago when everything had started. She had taken part in the whole war against Aizen too. It wasn't as if she had just been sitting on the sidelines doing nothing!

"But it might be dangerous Orihime. You never know when those things could return!" Tatsuki tried to reason with her while she continued to march towards the door. Quite frankly, she had had enough of their behaviour.

"I am eighteen years old Tatsuki! I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself! Please stop treating me as if I'm eight!" Orihime pleaded to her friend but didn't stop walking.

"Just let her go." Ichigo said suddenly, causing Uryu and Tatsuki to glare at him. "She is right, we walk around by ourselves and she should too." He said, trying to placate them for once. "But if you're not at the restaurant in half an hour we're going to go look for you, okay Orihime?" He called after her and she turned around, feeling grateful towards him.

"Yes! And don't worry, I'll be fine!" She grinned at them happily, her euphoria at being able to see Ulquiorra again and taking him to meet the others overtaking her former annoyance. With that she hurried out of the door before the others could say anything else, or even change their minds. And she also knew that she had to hurry. They would actually come and search for her if she was late.

"Why did you do that Ichigo?" Uryu quickly turned around, anger sparkling in his eyes. When Orihime had told them that she wanted them to meet her boyfriend, both he and Tatsuki had felt angry and betrayed to an extent since they hadn't even known that she was seeing anyone at all.

"Because what she was saying made sense." Ichigo shrugged. "And to be honest, we have been treating her like a child. We should trust her a bit more. And she promised that she would be there on time, so she'll be there on time."

"Aren't you bothered at all that she said that she wants us to meet her _boyfriend_?" Tatsuki asked pointedly. Was he really that thick? Did he actually think that Orihime was interested in someone else? Did he not care at all?

Rukia froze and indiscreetly turned around to look at Ichigo. How would he answer?

"Why should I be bothered?" Ichigo looked at them with confusion in his eyes. "I'm actually happy for her that she finally managed to find someone that she likes. I was starting to get worried. Most girls start to go all ga-ga over a boy." He scratched the back of his head as he shrugged nonchalantly. "Although I hope my sisters don't... I'll have to check that the guys in their classes are decent..." He mumbled as he began to walk towards the door. Chad's eyes twinkled in amusement while the others just stared at him in shock, thinking that he was being especially oblivious. Chad knew though that Ichigo had found out about Orihime's crush on him and had pointedly ignored it so as to remain friends with her since at the time he hadn't even thought about looking at someone like that.

Although he was still painfully oblivious when it came to the opposite gender more often than not.

"Are you guys coming?" He turned around to wait for them. Rukia gave him a brilliant smile, the tension from waiting for Ichigo's answer having fled from her. Somehow she hadn't liked how the others had mentioned a possible interest in Orihime. She loved the girl like a sister but somehow she couldn't stand the thought of her and Ichigo possibly being together. Unbeknownst to Ichigo, he blushed slightly at her beautiful smile and quickly turned around so that he could go out into the cold, feeling that the air in the lobby of their appartment building was a bit stifled.

Yes, Chad thought, Ichigo was definitely too oblivious for his own good.

~.~.~.~.~

"So they've rented the restaurant for this afternoon to celebrate the end of their term?" Kura looked at Haruo as she waited for an answer.

"Well they've rented that part of the restaurant since the amount of people coming is apparently quite large." Haruo responded, pointing to the left half of the restaurant that had a lot of 'reserved' signs on the tables.

"I don't know why they're so happy. I mean, it's only a couple of weeks off. Why are they so freakin' elated about it?" Kaito mumbled in annoyance. He hated holidays of any kind, Christmas, Golden Week, New Year's, Easter, any holiday really. He disliked them all.

"Well isn't someone especially grouchy today?" Kura asked him with amusement twinkling in her eyes and he just scowled back at her.

"I don't like the holidays. Never have. I see no sense in celebrating something as useless as them." He glared at his surroundings, feeling quite annoyed. As usual, his father had called last minute and had told him that he would be away for Christmas. He always was. The man was never at home to spend some time with his family. And to top it all off his younger sister had gone to stay with a friend until the twenty-ninth while his mother was off on some cruise ship in the Caribbean until the thirtieth.

"Well we all do so try to not spoil the mood, okay?" Haruo asked with a sense of disapproval in his voice. If someone didn't like the holidays it was fine with him. But that didn't mean that they had to try and ruin it for everyone else too.

"So what are you guys doing for Christmas?" Kura's eyes sparkled at the thought of having a couple of days off. Unlike the others she worked full time, so having two days off sounded positively brilliant to her.

"Not much. My parents are off to see my grandparents this year so I'll probably just spend it with my brother who's coming up from the south to visit." Haruo grinned as he thought of his slightly crazy older brother who had gone off to travel throughout the world instead of going to university, much to their parents' united disapproval. "And my sister's still here of course, she said that she didn't want to miss spending the last couple of days here before her friend moves away to the States. So it's just going to be the three of us." Haruo smiled fondly at the thought of spending some quality time with his siblings. Ever since his brother, and now he too, had moved out, they hadn't been able to spend an awful lot of time together.

"Nothing. Probably just going to be home." Kaito muttered. He didn't want to be reminded of his rather messed up and distant family.

"Then why don't you spend it with me?" Kura asked, shocking the other two males. "I mean, my family's pretty much shunned me and this year Ari's got her family over as well so I'm all by myself." She smiled at Kaito and shrugged. "And I don't see why anyone should be miserable on Christmas. So, what do you say?"

"That would be amazing." Kaito grinned for the first time that day. It sounded like his Christmas wasn't going to be that bad after all, he would even have some company.

"Hey! You guys! I know Christmas is around the corner but that doesn't give you the excuse to slack off!" Eiji Ine's annoyed voice penetrated their happy conversation and they quickly went back to doing their jobs.

"Of course sir!" Kura's voice rang out beautifully and the manager just sighed. All he wanted to do too was spend some time off with his family but his damn boss had told him that he should try and increase their profits where possible. Ironic, coming from her when she was out getting her nails done for some pre-Christmas party later that evening.

Thankfully Hideki was out with his friends doing what-not so the restaurant was a nice and peaceful place at the moment. Which was definitely good for his easily rising blood pressures.

The door opened, letting in a blast of freezing air. After the snowstorms that had haunted the whole of Karakura during the past week the temperature had dropped rather drastically and people tried to keep the outside frost from coming inside.

Ichigo felt happy, feeling the warm air from inside the restaurant hit his face as he held the door open for the others to come through. They all thanked him as he quickly closed the door and then proceeded to hang up their coats and jackets and put their shawls away.

"Let's get into the Christmas spirit then! We finally have our holidays!" Keigo happily sang as they sat down at their tables. Uryu raised his eyebrow at him, still feeling rather grumpy about the earlier exchange with Orihime while Mizuiro pointedly ignored the other teen, tapping away happily on his phone.

"Finally. I thought they were never going to arrive." Ichigo grinned broadly as Kura came and handed him and the others the menus. They had agreed beforehand to order drinks already while waiting for the rest of their group to turn up before ordering any food.

"Indeed." Chad nodded, knowing that everyone here was not only celebrating the end of a long term but also that so far no one had come to attack them again. The good Christmas spirit was enveloping them all and bringing up their previously quite dismal spirits.

"Hi everyone!" Rangiku's voice sang out as she entered the restaurant with her captain, Shuhei, Ikkaku and Yumichika in tow. Her cheeks were flushed and she looked like she was in high spirits. Toushiro on the other hand looked rather annoyed at the antics of his lieutenant, but that was nothing new.

"Thought we were never going to make it. It's positively atrocious out there." Yumichika shivered dramatically before sitting down and Ikkaku just rolled his eyes.

"You're such a drama queen." He muttered but sat down none the less.

"Everyone knows that if it's too cold or too hot that its bad for your hair and skin. You should know that Ikkaku." He sighed a world-weary sigh. "I have told you this so many times already."

Ichigo snorted slightly, which went unnoticed by the arguing pair. Rukia looked over and quirked an eyebrow at him. He inclined his head towards Ikkaku and Yumichika and rolled his eyes, causing her to chuckle in understanding. Yes, those two were as ridiculous as ever.

"Ah. We finally made it." Jushiro stepped inside the shop, closely followed by Shunsui and Nanao.

"The weather is absolutely abominable. This calls for some sake!" Shunsui grinned broadly as he shoved his coat into the wardrobe that was set up near the entrance and sat down with a jolly expression on his face.

"It most certainly doesn't." Nanao said rather pertly.

"Oh come on sweet Nanao, a drink or two won't hurt, right?" Shunsui grinned at his lieutenant who shook her head in dismay. Jushiro chuckled softly.

"Believe me Nanao, I've tried to talk him out of drinking for two hundred years and he still hasn't paid my well-meant words any attention." He smiled at her again before sitting down himself.

"Oh Jushiro. How your words slice at my heart." Shunsui put his hand over his eyes dramatically and leaned back, but everyone could see he was peeking through his fingers.

"Good. Hopefully you'll die of inner bleeding." Nanao said shortly and went on to choose a drink. Shunsui looked at her with a playfully hurt expression on his face.

"I don't think she's forgiven you yet my friend." Jushiro's eyes sparkled in amusement as he ordered some green tea. Unlike his friend, he didn't believe that one should be able to drink at any given point in the day.

Nemu entered the shop rather quietly during the whole exchange and sat down gracefully. Uryu greeted her with a smile which she surprisingly returned.

"Blast it it's cold." Kenpachi entered the shop with Yachiru on his shoulders.

"Look Kenny! We made it on time!" Yachiru sang happily while Haruo looked at the large man rather fearfully. Ichigo could understand his sentiments, Captain Zaraki wasn't exactly a person who gave off a friendly aura. And he also knew that he was going to be questioned quite thoroughly by his co-workers on his next shift about the company he kept. They were, quite frankly, probably the most bizarre set of people that had ever entered this restaurant at the same time.

"Hey." Shunsui lifted his hand in greeting and Kenpachi nodded in return. He was more preoccupied with getting Yachiru out of her way too big coat than greeting them and paying attention to what was going on around him.

"We have arrived!" Kisuke Urahara's bright voice penetrated the shop as he marched in rather triumphantly while Yuroichi entered behind him, shaking her head at his childish antics. Ichigo and the others who fequented the shop quite often suddenly felt the intense need to sink down into their chairs and hope that nobody recognised them. Which of course, wasn't going to happen.

"Where's Tessai?" Uryu asked, peering behind Yuroichi to search for the taller man.

"He decided to stay at home and watch Ururu and Jinta. He told us to send his greetings though." Yuroichi beat Kisuke to explaining why the other man wasn't with them. Kisuke sent her a mock glare.

"Yuroichi, let me explain why he's not here." He whined but Yuroichi pointedly ignored him, sitting down at the table and leaving him standing forlornly in the gangway.

"Yuroichi~" He whined before getting kicked and falling down.

"Stop standing in the doorway so pathetically you piece of trash." Soi Fon's harsh voice interrupted Kisuke.

"It's good to see you too Soi Fon." Kisuke grinned up mischievioulsy from his position on the floor and waved up at her. A vein began to throb on her forehead.

"Good to see that you made it." Yuroichi said from her place at the table, probably saving Kisuke's life in the process. Soi Fon greeted Yuroichi before greeting the others, by which time Kisuke had already gotten up and sat down beside Yuroichi, smirking at Soi Fon.

"He really wants to piss her off, doesn't he?" Ichigo asked Uryu and Chad.

"Yes, I think he does." Uryu whispered back and Chad simply nodded.

"Yo." Renji's voice came from the door and the others turned away from watching Soi Fon getting ready to murder Kisuke to greet the newcomers. Izuru and Hanataro entered through the door behind him.

"Where's nii-san?" Rukia asked as Renji and the others settled down as well.

"Not sure. He was on duty last so he's probably going to be here soon. You know how much he values punctuality." Renji shrugged although he did feel slightly uneasy since his captain wasn't here yet. In fact, Byakuya had been acting pretty weird as of late. Ever since they had come to the World of the Living he had been acting downright strange. Not that he had the guts to ask him about it though. He already knew what the answer would be. A cold stare that told him to mind his own business.

"Yeah. Don't worry Rukia. Your brother will be here soon." Ichigo smiled at Rukia reassuringly and she returned the smile. Renji was kind of glad that Byakuya wasn't there to see that, it might have ended in Ichigo getting stabbed for flirting with his sister. Although the orange-haired idiot probably didn't know that he was doing that anyway.

"Sorry we're late!" Orihime's voice came from the door and Ichigo swore that Uryu's head whipped around so fast that he got whiplash just from watching his friend do that.

"See, I made it within half an hour." Orihime said rather proudly which caused Ichigo and the others to smile. Of course she had. She had promised them after all. Another man was standing behind her and Ichigo got the feeling that he had seen or met him somewhere before. Which was of course, impossible, since the blonde man behind her was nothing like anyone that Ichigo had ever known.

"This is my boyfriend, Ulquiorra." Orihime said happily and Ichigo began choking on air while Uryu began choking on his tea. The others were more than shocked too when they heard the name. Rukia and Chad respectively began clapping their backs to help ease the startled teens' breathing.

"Ulquiorra you say?" Kisuke looked at the young man in interest. "Not a very common name around these parts." His eyes were hid underneath the rim of his hat so nobody could actually tell what the former captain of Squad 12 was thinking.

The green eyes felt frighteningly familiar as the young man smiled softly and bowed his head. "Well that is to be expected since I am not from these parts. I only recently transferred to Karakura from the north and my parents were firm believers in giving their children old names. They felt that it gave them a deeper meaning." His head went up again. "I am pleased to meet you all, I have heard a lot about you from Orihime." The deep emerald eyes were familiar yet the warmer tone and the facial expressions were so different from the nonchalant, emotionless espada that they had known.

"Well we're pleased to meet you too. Orihime surprised us quite a bit this morning when she said that she was planning to bring you along and introduce you." Ichigo said courteously. The others were still in a stupor and he felt that he shouldn't judge the other man simply because he bore a name similar to one of their former enemies.

"I was quite surprised too when she told me of this meeting yesterday. It came quite out of the blue." Ulquiorra smiled as well and Ichigo felt himself calming down. There was no way that this seemingly kind and gentle man could be the same as the fourth espada that he had fought. Who he had killed by the way.

The two of them started to move around the table to sit down when the door was flung open once more to show Ari and her brother and friend standing in the doorway.

"Sorry we're late. The traffic was absolutely horrendous. There was an accident and the taxi had to drive all the way around it." She said rather breathlessly before straightening up and grinning at them all. "Thanks for the invitation though. Good that I don't have a shift today." Her bright smile felt infectious and Ichigo grinned back as well.

"Good that you could come. All of you in fact." He smiled at them all and they returned it. This was probably the best Christmas season he had had in a long time. He had his powers back. He was able to spend Christmas with all his friends from the World of the Living and the Soul Society (despite that it was due to them being stranded here).

This year was definitely coming to a good end. He felt sure of it. No matter what the new year would bring, this year was definitely going to end on a good note.


	22. The Promise That She Made

_A/N: Thank you to everyone for their continued support for this story! :) 3  
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_ Also, we are finally getting to the part where everything slowly starts rolling, metaphorically speaking of course... :P ;)  
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_ RxExR!  
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><p><em>Forever and Always<em>

_Chapter 22 - The Promise That She Made_

Walking quickly through the walking snow Byakuya noticed that he was probably late to this 'gathering' that he had agreed to go to. Why? He did not really know. But Rukia had asked him rather kindly if he could please turn up so he had agreed.

Slowing down a bit since he decided that if he was late anyway, he might as well look like he was purposely late, he admired the falling snow around him. The Soul Society so rarely showed a difference in weather, if it did then something was normally quite wrong. And the falling snow around him reminded him of the day he had learned the name of his zanpakuto, especially when the red lights of the cars hit it, making it appear pink-ish, like falling cherry blossoms.

It had been a day in the middle of spring. Right when the cherry blossom season began. He and his partner, Ari, had gone out to watch them instead of listening to a lecture by another of their professors at school. At that time he had been a different person. Jiro, his good old servant, had told him so on several occasions. He was one of the few people that could tell Byakuya what was on their mind without fearing an icy death glare.

_"Byakuya look! Look how the blossoms are falling!"_

Her voice still echoed strongly in his mind. Really, back when he had started the academy he had always thought that he would get something which would show the strength of the Kuchiki clan, he sure hadn't expected a zanpakuto that reminded one of flowers.

_She laughed as she danced underneath the falling petals. They swirled around her in a beautiful dance and he felt something pulling at him at the back of his mind. A faint voice, telling him something that he couldn't hear._

He crossed the road, looking first left then right before striding over it. The cold weather kept most of the people in the city indoors. Unless you were on a street with a lot of shops, there were only a handful of people passing you by.

_"Aren't they beautiful? We should come and look at these every year!" She flashed a brilliant smile at him while the sun filtered through the leaves above them, hitting her hair to make it appear like a waterfall of liquid silver with some streaks of gold within it._

He was nearing the restaurant now, he was looking forward to its warmth. It really was quite cold out here. It was probably amongst the coldest weathers he had ever experienced.

_"I... promise... that... I'll be... back... okay?" Her beautiful eyes were growing dull. The life was seeping out of her. She was dieing._

Ah, he was nearly there now. And he could already see the others through the windows. It seemed like he really was the last one to make it today. It was quite unlike him, he reckoned, although he had always had a tendancy to be a bit late when he was younger. She'd always been the more punctual one out of the two of them.

_How could she promise that she would be back? She was dead. Gone. The tears streaked down his face as he hunched over in the hospital bed, holding her cherry blossom clip tightly. He didn't know that he had a broken look in his eyes. He didn't know how fragile and fragmented he appeared to those watching at that moment._

He tried to push the age-old memories from his mind. There was no changing the past anyway. He couldn't pull her back into this life. He didn't have the power to revive people. But he did know that he would make Aizen pay for the lives he had taken.

_"You still come here every year Byakuya. Why?" He looked up to see the sad eyes of Captain Jushiro Ukitake peer into his own. The captain of Squad 13 saw pain in those eyes. A pain that no one could heal, not even time it seemed._

_Little did he know that deep in his heart he still held onto that promise that she had made. The one that told him that one day she would be back. Carrying hope within you could sometimes be such a painful thing._

He pushed open the door and the others turned to look at him, relief in the eyes of his lieutenant and his sister as they saw that he was quite alright. It seemed that him being late really was an alien concept to them.

But before he could even greet any of them he looked up and that was when he saw her. Some snowflakes had floated in with her own entrance as well as his just now and they were twirling around her, surrounding her like those cherry blossoms had all those years ago. The light from above and outside combined let those small pieces of frozen water gleam a rosy pink colour and for a moment time stood still. The others stared at him, seeing an absolutely shocked expression on his face.

For a brief moment in time those chestnut locks of hair gleamed silver and she was laughing so her eyes were closed as she looked up to two other people. That laughter like bells rang so familiarly in his ears, he would be able to recognise it anywhere. But he knew that those eyes would be a deep turquoise should she turn around and look at him.

"Ari." A long forgotten name slipped past his lips as he stared at the smaller woman in shock. All seemed silent as the Jushiro froze at the table, looking at him in surprise. And the others who had noticed his entry, noticed his expression.

~.~.~.~.~

She'd been laughing at something that her brother had been telling her when she heard her name. Normally she wouldn't have heard it over the din in the room, but it came from a voice that she hadn't heard in a very long time.

She froze. And with her, it seemed, time did as well. She turned around slowly, praying in her head that this wasn't just a dream, that she wasn't just imagining things. She had just entered the restaurant and hadn't even looked at all the people that were seated with Ichigo yet, hadn't even greeted them all. But that didn't matter anymore as she turned around.

And there she saw him. For the first time in sixty years she saw him, standing there, mouth agape as he stared at her. Had he recognised her despite her different appearance?

Just as unwilling as his had been she uttered his name. "Byakuya?" Her voice was tentative, soft. She didn't trust her own emotions. This might just be another trick of her longing mind.

"Byakuya?" Her voice echoed louder now, stopping the conversations at the table beside her. All of them faced the two of them and they could both feel the confusion radiating off of them. But at that moment they didn't care. They didn't notice anything. All they saw was each other.

"Byakuya!" She exclaimed for a third time and rushed forward, wanting to know whether he was real or not. Somehow she knew though. Somehow she knew that he was real and that he was alright and that he was in front of her right now.

"Ari." He whispered as she landed in his arms and he pulled her close. His arms circled around her, never wanting to let her small body go. He spun around once from the force of her coming towards him but he didn't care. He didn't care at all. He closed his eyes and pulled her even tighter, just like she tightened her hold on him.

He pressed his head to her hair and recognised the familiar scent of her. He felt tears pricking his eyes and could feel that she was beginning to cry herself.

"You're alive. Thank god you're alive." He whispered, his heart soaring as he realised that she had kept that promise from so long ago.

"You're alright." She whispered. "Thank god you're alright." Her sentiments echoed his own.

He was never going to let her go again like back then. Never again.

~.~.~.~.~

Jushiro stared at the young woman who had just entered the store with an intensity that surprised himself. She looked just like his younger sister. She reminded him so much of her. But she couldn't be. Unless she was a reincarnation of some sort and then of course she wouldn't remember any of them. If you went through the cycle of rebirth, you didn't remember what your previous life had been like.

He heard the door opening and saw with some slight relief that it was Byakuya. While the other captain was reknown throughout the Soul Society for his strict adherence to rules and punctuality nowadays, he had been quite different when he was younger.

He was just about to greet the younger man when the other froze as he looked something in front of him. Jushiro turned to look at what he was looking at and saw the young woman that Ichigo hadn't actually introduced to them yet standing there laughing with her brother and friend. Something about the snow and how cold it was.

Looking back at the captain of Squad 6, he saw an absolutely shocked expression overtake the young man's face. Was he alright he wondered as he continued to look at Byakuya.

"Ari?" The name slipped past Byakuya's lips and Jushiro froze. Why had he just said the name of a person who had died over sixty years ago? The soft question could hardly be heard over the noise in the restaurant but he heard that name loud and clear.

Shunsui seemed to notice that something was wrong since he poked him in his side and asked him what had happened. Jushiro didn't reply though, continuing to observe the scene in front of him, feeling unable to even move.

He saw the woman freeze before turning around. Then he heard it. A just as quiet question uttered from her own mouth, mirroring the one that had called her attention.

"Byakuya?" She stared, the surprise and shock evident on her features.

"Byakuya?" Her next question was louder and the rest of their table grew quiet, not knowing what was going on. He knew though. Somehow he knew that she was indeed his sister and that she remembered them all.

"Byakuya!" The next time she called his name was an exclamation as she rushed forward and the other hugged her close to his body. She did exactly the same and Jushiro vaguely noticed Rukia dropping the piece of cutlery that she had been holding.

"Ari." Byakuya whispered once more, but this time it was heard loud and clear by the rest of the table as they watched in shock the distant captain hugging the smaller woman tight to himself.

"You're alive. Thank god you're alive." Jushiro felt his hand shaking. Was that her? Was that really her?

"You're alright. Thank god you're alright." She whispered back and he knew that it was her then and there.

"What the..." Ichigo trailed off, watching the extremely strange scene in front of himself. What the hell was going on? Out of all the bizarre things that he had witnessed within the past two months (and there had been quite a fair number) this had to rank right at the top.

"Um... might I be so kind to interrupt and ask what is going on?" Yuroichi asked rather tentatively, having seen tears starting to form in her former protegé's eyes. The other two didn't react though.

"I guess that the cat is out of the bag..." Grimmjow sighed in defeat. He really had known that keeping those two from meeting was a mere illusion.

"Grimmjow?" Jushiro asked, recognising the voice of the young man. Was he here as well? Realising that he was, he quickly stood up and went over to the other man who only then noticed his presence.

"Jushiro?" Grimmjow stared at him in shock now, not having known that he was here as well. After all, Jushiro and Shunsui had spent most of their time at Kisuke's since they hadn't joined the others in the university.

As a response, the white-haired captain hugged the younger man tightly to him, feeling happiness course through his veins. They were alive. Both of them were truly and utterly alive and well. It felt like a long-lost dream come true.

The others continued to stare at the scene in front of them completely gobsmacked, not knowing what to make of it. Even Kisuke looked completely and utterly surprised at the sudden turn of events.

"Can't... breathe... nii-san... air..." Grimmjow choked out as Jushiro realised that he had been holding the other in a near death grip. Grimmjow gratefully pulled the air into his lungs as he breathed in once released.

"Nii-san?" Soi Fon asked, feeling utterly stumped at how the two captains were acting. She had seen many strange things in her time of serving with the thirteen court guard squads, but this had to be one of the strangest.

"I can't believe that the two of you are alive. You'd died so long ago." Jushiro said softly as he looked at his younger brother fondly. It really had been a long time. Despite the different appearance, Grimmjow still appeared the same to him.

"Well... technically we did die." Grimmjow said awkwardly, rubbing the back of his head. "It's kind of a difficult story to tell." He looked over at his sister and Byakuya. "Not to mention a long one." He shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't know that you had come over from the Soul Society as well though. I thought it was only a couple of you."

"Aizen escaping isn't exactly a small manner Grimmjow. You know that. Having lived there yourself you should know how the Soul Society reacts to traitors." Nel interjected, giving him a slightly disapproving look.

"Wait, wait, wait." Ichigo held up his hand as Byakuya and Ari also looked up. "You guys know about all of this?" To say that he was the only one surprised once more would have been incorrect.

"Yup." Ari nodded as she looked at him, a soft smile on her face. She quickly wiped away her tears. "But I don't think that this would be the best place to explain anything."

"She's right you know." Kisuke said, smiling out from underneath his hat. "We should probably go and talk at my place. I think that this dinner can probably wait for another time." The others nodded and one by one got up, all of them fetting ready to go to Kisuke's.

They really couldn't wait to get the answers to this one.

"You're coming too Ulqiorra." Nel told her cousin and the others looked over at him, surprise seemingly becoming an accustomed expression for that day.

"You're involved in all of this too?" Uryu said rather distastefully. He still couldn't stand the man.

"Of course. She's my cousin." He pointed at Nel who grinned. "A rather annoying one at that." He smirked as Nel's annoyed 'hey!' was heard.

"Let's go then." Yuroichi said as she looked around at their group. This day really hadn't turned out as she thought it would.

"Good to have you back Captain." Kenpachi grinned at Ari and she smiled at him warmly.

"Good to see you too Kenpachi. And Yachiru of course too." Yachiru waved happily at the smaller woman.

"You kept your promise." Byakuya said and her eyes softened as she looked up at him.

"Of course I kept it. It was a promise after all." He helped her put on her jacket.

Ichigo, Rukia and Renji glanced at each other as they left the shop last, having had to explain why they wouldn't be needing the table that day after all. They really couldn't wait to hear the explanation to this.


	23. Explanations

_ A/N: Finally an update! :P _

_Thank you to **Furionknight** for their review on chapter 22, it's greatly appreciated! :)_

_RxExR! :)_

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><p><em>Forever and Always<em>

_Chapter 23 - Explanations_

"Well I guess this is the best time to deliver an explanation." Grimmjow said, his voice rough as he looked at the setting sun. Their two weeks disguise was about to end and it might make the whole explaining easier or harder. He didn't really know.

"Yeah." Nel nodded as they walked side-by-side to Kisuke Urahara's house. Everyone was taking a slightly different route, to either talk or discuss about what had occured, or to merely have some time to sort out their own thoughts. Ari and Byakuya were nowhere to be seen but that was to be expected, those two had a lot to catch up on, although they would probably do that later on, after the explanations of this evening.

Maybe it was for the better that their secrets were about to be exposed. It was always a dangerous thing, exposing a secret so well-kept, but she felt that they owed it to the others to tell them what exactly they would be dealing with. This wasn't just about them and their existence anymore. Now that Aizen had gotten involved it had turned into something so much bigger. It involved the whole of the Soul Society now.

"But really Grimmjow. How close were those two really?" Nel looked at Grimmjow who looked straight ahead, unseeing, thinking about his sister. He didn't need to ask who she meant. He already knew who she was talking about.

"They were already so close when I was still alive there. I could see it with each passing day that should either one die that it would break the other apart." He looked sad. "And from what I heard in Hueco Mundo before I lost my conscience was exactly that. He apparently fell apart after her death, never really recovering. I had expected it but it was still a shock." For once the sky was free of any clouds and one could see the colourful sky while the sun set.

Nel looked over at him in sympathy. He continued to talk. "I know about how close they were, Jushiro knows too. But to everyone else it's incomprehensible." He gave a humourless chuckle. "They aren't exactly the kind of people who you'd expect to act like that."

"Yeah." Nel smiled softly as she turned back to look straight ahead. "Even without actually knowing him I can tell that."

~.~.~.~.~

"Okay, okay. One thing at a time. Ari's your younger sister?" Ichigo looked at Jushiro. He was trying to figure out the most basic of facts before the others explained everything to them.

"Yes, she is. Well not biologically, but she was adopted into the Ukitake family along with her twin brother, Grimmjow, at a very young age." Jushiro nodded. Rukia and Renji looked at him inquiringly, waiting for him to continue.

"Both went to the Academy and graduated but Grimmjow got killed on a mission a couple of years later. My sister and Captain Kuchiki were partners in the Academy and continued to stay so while they both served in Squad 6."

"But Captain Zaraki called her 'captain'." Rukia interjected, and apologised for interrupting immediately afterwards.

"Yes. That is because she was the Captain of Squad 11. The captain before her requested that she be the next one and she already had her bankai so she became the next captain." Jushiro explained patiently. "She died while on a mission though by the hands of one of Aizen's failed experiments while protecting everyone else. Captain Kuchiki was with her at the time and saw her die. It affected him quite deeply." Jushiro swallowed and looked into the distance. The others could see that Byakuya wasn't the only one who had been heavily affected by her demise.

"But to see her alive again. It really is a miracle." Jushiro smiled softly.

"No offense sir, but how can you be so sure that it is actually her?" Renji asked the question that had been bugging him for quite some time.

"Firstly because my gut tells me so." He chuckled at their expressions. "Always trust your gut, ninety-five percent of the time it's right. And then there's the way that your brother reacted." He inclined his head towards Rukia. "Have you ever seen him react that way? He would only react like that if it was actually her." He shrugged. "I'm not sure why we're so sure but we are. I know that it is her, even if she did die all that time ago."

The others looked at each other, they weren't so sure of that. But then again, they hadn't known the Aurora Ukitake from back then, now had they?

~.~.~.~.~

Everyone had gathered at Kisuke's and settled down in the large underground hall. Ari had said that it would be better considering that there were so many of them and since they wanted to show the others something. Yuroichi had agreed with her and so they had all gone down to the large underground training grounds.

After they had all settled down an awkward silence reigned over them. No one knew where to start and where that start really was anyway. So they sat in silence for a few minutes unsure of what to say. Of course, it had to be Ichigo who finally broke that silence.

"Okay, so who are you really?" He looked directly at Ari, his gaze unwavering. "I mean I, and everyone else from this world knows you as Aurora Jaegerjaquez, the annoying co-worker of mine. And you're only nineteen as far as I know. But then they" and he pointed to Byakuya, Jushiro and Kenpachi, "know you as Aurora Ukitake, former captain of Squad 11 who died over half a decade ago. So who are you? And you two too." He quickly added, pointing at Grimmjow and Nel.

"I am both of those people, or rather, both of those names are mine." Ari replied gently, knowing that this story would be a long one. "My current appearance" she touched her chestnut hair briefly, "was what I looked like a very long time ago, longer than you can probably wrap your mind around. It was what I looked like as a kid."

"It's time." Grimmjow suddenly interrupted and they looked over at him as Nel nodded gently. The other's eyes widened as the appearances of the people before them began to change. Slowly the chestnut and blonde receded as they gave way to the other, much more exotic hair colours. What surprised the group of friends though was how Ulquiorra, the man that Orihime had just introduced to them as her boyfriend, was undergoing the same changes.

"Two weeks have passed which is why our appearances have gone back to normal." Ari broke them out of their stupor. "We use a machine that alters our appearances slightly to keep us from being recognised, it helps us stay hidden."

"What are you doing here?!" Uryu and Ichigo shouted simultaneously while pointing at Ulquiorra and Grimmjow respectively. Grimmjow rolled his eyes while Ulquiorra sighed.

"Believe me, if we had wanted to kill you we would have done so a long time ago. Now get your panties out of a twist and sit down so that my sister can explain." Grimmjow said with an impatient wave of his hand which raised the other two's temper significantly.

"Must you try and aggravate them?" Ulquiorra asked with a dead-pan expression while Nel hit Grimmjow on the head and glared at him slightly. The others were once again surprised at the interactions between the three. Back in Hueco Mundo Ulquiorra and Grimmjow had hated each other's guts, at least Grimmjow had hated Ulquiorra's and Nel had disassociated herself from all Espada.

"This is what Grimmjow and I looked like in the Soul Society." Ari completely ignored the interaction between her friends, for her it was the norm.

Byakuya and Jushiro nodded in the affirmative. "Yes, this is definitely what you looked like back then." Jushiro smiled as he finally saw his little sister again as he had known her back then.

"And you must understand that we haven't ever actually told anyone our stories so please be patient while we try to explain as best as we can." Nel said softly and Ichigo and Uryu sat back down, deciding that patience might indeed bring them further than attempting to beat their former enemies up.

"My full name is Aryeana Aurora Yasuko Hitsugaya-Jaegerjaquez Ukitake." She said with a small incline of her head.

"Grimmjow Kichiro Ryo Hitsugaya-Jaegerjaquez Ukitake." Grimmjow said shortly.

"Nelliel Tu Oderschwanck." Nel said with a bright smile, her bright green hair dancing around her face.

"Ulquiorra Cifer." As always, Ulquiorra kept his answer the shortest.

"Grimmjow and I are twins, with me being the slightly older one." Ari said with a small smile ad´nd Grimmjow's 'tch' could be heard quite clearly. "Nel and Ulquiorra are cousins and we have known the two of them ever since we were small."

The others slowly absorbed the information thrown at them.

"But then why do you still retain your memories of a past life after you have quite obviously died?" Kisuke, as always, found the more scientific side of things interesting.

"Technically we cannot die." Ari's eyes and expression grew incredibly bitter. "Yes, we die in the sense that we leave a world or something but that is normally only after we will our soul to move on or it cannot manifest itself in that world any longer due to injuries to our physical body." She eplained while looking at Kisuke.

"So even after you 'die' you are still yourself in the next world and have all of your memories?" Yuroichi found it hard to believe when one considered the cycle of death.

"Yes." Ari nodded.

"That should not be possible." Nemu said softly, interjecting her voice into the conversation.

"It isn't possible for people of the three or four dimensions that you know. And it normally isn't possible for people from our dimension too. However, due to an 'accident' when we were young where we were supposed to have died it has been like this for us." The way Byakuya gave Ari a soft reassuring squeeze of the hand was barely noticeable but those that did notice it were extremely surprised.

"Roughly two centuries ago Grimmjow and I split from Nel and Ulquiorra when we went to look for our younger brother who had gotten seperated from us." Now this was where the story started to get really interesting. "Grimmjow and I decided to go to the Soul Society to look for him there while Nel and Ulquiorra decided to search through Hueco Mundo for him."

"Having never been in Hueco Mundo before, Ulquiorra and I got 'corrupted' I guess by the atmosphere and life there and assumed the positions of hollows." Nel stated sadly, looking contrite. "Our personalities started to warp and we slowly lost our memories, forgetting who we had been before and what we were supposed to do."

"We continued life like that until Aizen arrived." Ulquiorra said quietly and the whole room grew silent. Again, Aizen was involved in this. "He changed us from our more primitive hollow state into Arrancar and we became Espada. But with our returning humanity we also started to slowly remember things from the past."

"It was one of the reasons I left the Espada." Nel continued on. "I was starting to remember things which weren't aligning with what Aizen was telling us and I was also starting to regain my personality. I left because I somehow knew something was wrong."

"I remembered shortly before you killed me." Ulquiorra nodded at Ichigo who stiffened. Somehow the former Fourth Espada seemed completely unbothered by the whole fact that Ichigo had practically murdered him. "I remembered who I was and who I knew. Orihime here was the main catalyst for it all." Orihime blushed slightly and Uryu growled underneath his breath, he was beginning to like the former Fourth Espada even less than before, which he had already deemed impossible.

"But then how are you the age you are now? If I understood everything correctly so far you still age relatively normally in the world that you have entered after passing on." Soi Fon narrowed her eyes at Ulquiorra, clearly not trusting the former hollow.

Ulquiorra glanced briefly at Orihime and then sighed, there was no way around this explanation after all. "I died, but only for a couple of minutes or maybe even hours. The longer your spirit has spent in a certain dimension the longer it takes to move on. I spent a good two hundred years in Hueco Mundo and thus my spirit took quite a while to move on."

"I went back and reversed his death." Orihime said quietly and her friends' mouths fell open.

"You what?!" Tatsuki looked absolutely gobsmacked.

"Her powers reverse the effects of something that has occured. So even her healing powers are merely the turning back of time for those wounds and their condition. The same happened to me. She basically reversed my 'condition', my death, and I reformed." Ulquiorra explained calmly.

"I felt horrible for him dying. I had to go back and try and do something." Orihime said quietly, her head bowed down. "I don't regret my decisions or my actions though." All words had fled from the people around her as she looked back up, her eyes glinting with determination and conviction.

"After that I moved to the World of the Living and Orihime helped me recover. Practically dying and coming back from the dead isn't exactly a walk in the park. After that I moved away to the north so that I wouldn't inconvenience any of you and to avoid being found. Orihime and I stayed in touch and then a couple of weeks ago I moved back to Karakura after my university transferred me here and I had felt a shift in the dimensions."

There really seemed no words that were able to respond to his explanation accordingly, and so everyone simply remained silent.

"And Grimmjow didn't die from Nnoitra's attack on him." Nel continued. "I found him and since my memories had returned, I also knew who he had been before. I helped him heal and the past two years we have spent doing reconnaissance in Hueco Mundo and keeping an eye out for things. As soon as we felt a shift in dimensions, we decided to leave Hueco Mundo, feeling certain that Aizen would probably return there should he have something to do with anything since it had been his base of operations once before."

"Tier Harribel was running Hueco Mundo when we left. We don't know how things stand now though." Grimmjow then threw in. "I regained my memories while I was recovering so I also know what happened before and after." His face looked at something in the distance with distaste though.

"We can't really believe we lost ourselves like that. We weren't ourselves when we met you the first time and we apologise for what we did while we were in that state." Nel said apologetically and Grimmjow and Ulquiorra nodded in assent, their pride barring them from doing anything more.

"In the meanwhile Grimmjow and I lived in the Soul Society. Similar to Nel and Ulquiorra we became accustomed to life there and took an active part in it, something we had decided beforehand not to do. We didn't lose ourselves in the process though, we still remained who we were." Ari continued from where she had left off. "We then met the Ukitake family a couple of years after our arrival and then got adopted into it." She smiled warmly at Jushiro who returned it in kind. Grimmjow's expression also softened.

"We joined the academy and then the Squads, I was placed in Squad 6 while Grimmjow was placed in Squad 10." Ari broke her sentence off there and looked at Grimmjow.

"I died on a mission in Hueco Mundo and promptly passed on into it, joining Nel and Ulquiorra. But like they said, I lost my sense of self too along the way." Grimmjow looked uncomfortable admitting that he had lost control.

"I continued to live in the Soul Society and went on to become the captain of Squad 11. I also died while on a mission against one of Aizen's failed experiments." Somehow Ichigo and Rukia got the feeling that they were getting a very condensed version of what had happened back then. She wasn't lying, but she wasn't telling them everything either.

"After that I passed on to the World of the Living and have basically spent the past sixty years moving around this world. We only age up until a certain point and then stop so it required me to continue moving, otherwise some very strange questions would have arisen." Ari said and her smile looked slightly sad. "I then settled into Karakura four or five years ago and have been here ever since."

She stopped talking and the others sat a couple of minutes in silence to try and digest the whole information.

"So you can't die in the sense that you will actually pass on properly?" Yuroichi asked softly and Keigo and Tatsuki looked quite uncomfortable. It didn't sit well with them that someone couldn't really die.

"Not as far as we know. I'm sure that we are actually able to, but we haven't figured it out yet. And believe me when I say that we have tried." The side of Ari's mouth quirked in slight amusement.

"You have tried to commit suicide?" Hanataro swallowed heavily, the doctor's side of him quivering at the thought that someone would try to take their own life.

"Several times actually." Grimmjow said rather flippantly. "It obviously hasn't worked so far yet." He looked oddly disappointed at that and Nel chuckled at his displeased expression.

"We still don't really know who or what you are though." Renji pointed out and Rukia and Ichigo nodded, yes, that mystery was still unsolved.

"We are a race of people from the creator's dimension which was sealed off from yours a couple of millenia back." Grimmjow said briefly. "Due to us being from a different dimension we have different powers and bodies than you do, which partially explains why we are so different to you lot." Nice, sweet, and to the point, no beating around the bush. That was simply Grimmjow.

"In our dimension we were known as 'Kyoro' or demon slayers. The creature that attacked you was one of those demons, a relatively low-class one though at that." He continued on, ignoring the surprised looks from the ones around him.

"How do you know of that attack?" Ichigo asked, his forehead scrunched together in thought.

"Who do you think has been keeping all of those hollows off of your back the past couple of weeks while your powers started to return?" Grimmjow answered with a question of his own. "Of course we've been keeping tabs on you, what do you think we are, stupid?"

"Don't answer that honestly." Nel grinned while Grimmjow shot her a small glare.

"I was the one that killed that demon." Ari stated softly and they looked at her in surprise. "A Kyoro's job is to protect others from the demons, we slay them. It was only natural to do so." She shrugged. "As we said, the creator's dimension is completely different from these so therefore the powers from these worlds, unless adapted in some form, are practically useless against a demon from that world."

"We know that Aizen has probably got something to do with the demons and the change in balance between the dimensions which is why one of them came after you." Nel continued for her friends. "Somehow he has gotten in touch with them and enlistened them to work with him. Which is why this isn't only our problem any more, it's yours too."

"But why are you in this world and not in your own?" Uryu asked, thinking that something was weird about the whole thing. Why were they here when they were originally from another dimension.

"That is for us to know and you to find out not unless we willingly tell you." Ulquiorra said, and everyone looked over at him. It wasn't a story that they wished to share, it was one of their deepest secrets. As far as he knew, only their group knew of the complete reason and circumstances that had led to their current situation.

"Well!" Kisuke clapped his hands as a slightly awkward silence descended upon the group. "Why don't we all go and get some sleep and enjoy christmas?" Ichigo was barely able to stop himself from cringing at the positive energy that was streaming out from Kisuke.

"Christmas? You want us to go on holiday?" Yuroichi smirked and shook her head as Soi Fon asked, showing complete indignation on her face at the suggestion.

"Yes. We have been working our buts off the past couple of weeks so I think that we should enjoy life a bit again!" Kisuke smiled broadly. "So, shoo! Shoo! Go to your own appartments and living spaces and who knows what and enjoy christmas! Have fun! We'll see you all for the New Year's party where we will catch up on the missed dinner today!" And with that Kisuke basically began kicking them out of his house and onto the street.

"So... we just go?" Keigo looked around himself at the others, feeling unsure of what to do.

"Yes." And Mizuiro just began walking off as Keigo ran after him to catch up with his best friend.

"We'll be going too then!" And Orihime quickly took off with Ulquiorra so that they could have some privacy and time to themselves.

"Um..." Tatsuki put up her hand to say something but Orihime was gone quicker than they could blink.

"Nii-san?" Rukia looked around the remaining group for her brother but she couldn't see him anywhere.

"They've already taken off. We probably won't see them for some time while they catch up." Grimmjow raised his hand in farewell as he and Nel took off to go home as well, leaving the ones that were still standing there feeling slightly flabbergaster. But only slightly.

"I think we should just go home." Ichigo sighed after shaking his head in exasperation. "Come on Rukia, let's go." Rukia nodded, still slightly dazed and both of them began to slowly make their way down the street.

"Today's been strange." Uryu said to Chad as they too began to head home.

The only thing he got in response was the usual nod.


End file.
